Winner SURF Research Support Champion Awards 2023: Anne Mickan
Anne Mickan is a Research Software Engineer at Radboudumc. Her versatility as a research support engineer is one of the reasons she won one of SURF Research Support Champion Awards 2023.
Research Support Champion Awards ceremony on 23 May 2023
On 23 May, Anne Mickan was awarded the Research Support Champion Award 2023. Watch this celebratory moment below. You can read more about Anne and why she won the award below the video.
The moment Anne is handed the Research Support Champion Award 2023.
Looking for the best solution
Anne is an exceptional research software engineer, with a great sense of responsibility. She responds quickly to questions and always looks for the best solution. She is a team player and knows how to connect well with Radboudumc researchers. She shows researchers how they can best use software to do their research.
Driving force behind grand-challenge.org
Anne is also a driving force behind grand-challenge.org. This is a platform on which machine learning-based solutions are developed for challenges in the field of biomedical imaging. Researchers all over the world use grand-challenge.org. This platform brings together all information around challenges in the field of biomedical image analysis in one place.
Anne helps users formulate challenges and share them on the platform. Furthermore, she added more than 100 new features to the platform, including features for two-factor authentication, human correction of AI results and many UX improvements.
What does the jury say about Anne?
It is impressive to see that Anne solves so many technical problems of researchers. As far as we are concerned, that is the essence of support, and her way of working thus fits the needs of researchers perfectly.
In addition, Anne's versatility as a research support engineer stands out. With a great sense of communication, she helps researchers, but she also makes an important technical and substantive contribution to the grand-challenge.org platform. With her contribution to this platform, she has a substantial share in developing a standard for machine learning solutions in biomedical imaging for researchers around the world.
How does Anne hope to inspire others?
"I worked as a scientist myself for a number of years, so I know how to put myself in the position of researchers and also know how important it is to do so. You have to be able to listen carefully to the researcher's needs to ultimately reach an appropriate solution so that they can conduct their research efficiently and within FAIR principles.
My tip: be flexible and think creatively. The possibilities within the existing research infrastructure are often limited, but there is always a solution for the researcher, and if you think along creatively and communicate openly, you will certainly be able to find this as a research supporter."