What’s your name and where are you from?
My name is Mari Sone, and I am from Tokyo, Japan.
Where are you based, and who are your supervisors?
I am working at Amsterdam UMC in Amsterdam, Netherlands. My supervisors are Mai Chin A Paw and Teatske Altenburg.
What’s your educational background?
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Research Psychology. During both my undergraduate and graduate studies, I focused on Behavioral Neuroscience and Neuropsychiatry, which is where I became familiar with coding
What was the last professional or educational activity you carried out before joining LABDA, and how did you decide to join LABDA from there?
Before starting this project, I was a master’s student. During my master’s program, I completed a research internship assessing sleep therapy using an accelerometer, which sparked my interest in analyzing human movement data.
What’s your PhD topic?
My PhD research focuses on translating advanced 24/7 movement data analysis into actionable public health recommendations. While these advanced analyses have great potential, they can often become overly technical and difficult for policymakers to understand. The goal of my PhD is to conduct advanced analyses in a way that is informative and meaningful to professionals in the public health sector.
What would you like to achieve with your research work?
My goal is to conduct truly meaningful research that can have impact on people’s better health, especially for those who are less privileged. I believe that not all health research is impactful or contributes to advancing the field. This is something I often struggle with, but ideally, I strive to stay focused on the purpose of my work and continue to reflect on how to achieve it in the best way possible.
What’s your role within LABDA?
I am part of the LABDA dissemination team, where my colleagues and I strive to raise awareness about our projects and activities. Our aim is to ensure that our work reaches a wider audience, maximizing its impact.
Can you tell us one personal thing about you that is weird or funny?
I don’t know why, but I can’t sleep with my feet under the duvet. Every time I stay at a hotel, I have to pull the tightly tucked duvet really hard just to keep my feet out of my bed.
