Thom van Gessel (MoL 2016)

• Researcher Data Science at TNO.
• PhD at ILLC in 2020

Meet Tom: "You might be wondering, as I did during the MoL, whether your future lies in academia or industry. But there's also something in between: TNO is an independent research institute that aims to turn academic ideas into real-world impact. It's where theory meets practice, and where your work can directly contribute to solving societal challenges.

As a researcher in the Data Science department, I work on knowledge representation and reasoning. This involves building ontologies and knowledge graphs that enable information to be structured and shared. Logic still plays a role in this work, but since joining TNO, my focus has shifted much closer to real-world applications, where I collaborate with stakeholders to address concrete problems. At the same time, I still have opportunities to publish papers and attend conferences. In addition to my research, I also take on the role of project manager in AI-related research projects and coordinate internships within our department.

After completing the MoL in 2016, I went on to do a PhD and a postdoc at the ILLC before moving to TNO in 2022. This means I can share quite a bit about the differences between academia and a research institute like TNO. I can also tell you more about the option of combining your MoL thesis with an internship."