Patti M. Valkenburg is professor emeritus at the University of Amsterdam. Her research explores how media and technology shape individuals and society. In 2013, she published a widely cited theory explaining why some individuals are more susceptible to the effects of media and technology than others. Leading several research teams over the years, she helped pioneer a personalized approach to media effects research, making it possible to pinpoint who experiences positive, negative, or no effects from (social) media, and why.
Valkenburg has always strived to make research accessible and relevant to real-world issues. She is the co-founder of Kijkwijzer, the Dutch media rating system now used in many countries, and has advised the Dutch government, parliament, and the European Commission on technology and society. Her work has earned her numerous prestigious grants and awards, including an ERC Advanced Grant and the 2011 Spinoza Prize, the highest academic honor in the Netherlands, which comes with 2.5 million euros.
She is an elected fellow of several major international and scientific academies, including the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Association for Psychological Science, and Academia Europaea. Her commitment to sharing knowledge freely is reflected in her open-access book Plugged In, published by Yale University Press and translated worldwide.
