Marianne Heselmans

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Company / Organization / University

ImpactReporters

Role / Title

Global Sciencejournalist

Bio / Specialization

Marianne Heselman's goal is providing news on biotechnology and environmental and food sciences. Her curiosity about how life works is sparked by reading about the results of research in these fields. She likes the challenge of ordering information from different sources to craft clear and accessible stories.
She is also interested in social processes. Science is never politically neutral. Results - together with a PR-story can profoundly influence careers and the market value of companies. She therefore situates scientific results within a political context in my writing.
Marianne Heselman's stories, essays, start documents and reports are guided by the quality of the evidence and the arguments put forward, rather than commercial stakes or opinions.
She is specialized in writing news articles, features and trend articles for newspapers and journals. In addition, she has many years experience as an editor and trainer in courses Sciencejournalism and Science communication at the Aplied University of Utrecht.
In 2010, Marianne Heselmans has set up DePerskamer, together with sciencejournalist Astrid Smit. They provide courses in science communication on universities; in 2011, she has set up ImpactReporters for communication in the field of water, food and energy, together with journalists Hans van de Veen and Han van der Wiel.

Articles

Farmers are cherishing their trees again

Sixth article in the IYS 2015 series. Success stories from Nigeria, China and Ethiopia have proven that it takes 20 years to turn deforested and depleted soil back to green and fertile land, giving its people a future again. Ensuring farmers ownership of trees and land is crucial. »

Precision fertilizing using drones and scanners

Fifth article in the IYS 2015 series. The first drones are already flying over potato, wheat and soya crops. By combining drone-recorded imaging with soil scans, growers are able to target their fertilizing much more precisely than before. This method has great environmental advantages as some plots of soil require far less fertilizer than others. »

Too much fertilizer, too many brambles

Third article in the IYS 2015 series. Excessive levels of nitrogen in the soil due to artificial fertilizers are degrading natural habitats all over the world. Using less artificial fertilizer and eating less meat will help alleviate the problem – although the effects won’t be seen any time soon. »

Think twice before ploughing

First article in the IYS 2015 series. Should you dig your garden or plough your fields or not? An increasing number of allotment holders and farmers have stopped tilling. It saves on hard work and soil life stays intact. But it makes things easier for fungi and weeds. »