Patti M. Valkenburg is a distinguished university professor at the University of Amsterdam. Born into a non-academic immigrant family, she began her academic studies only at age 30. Her research concentrates on understanding the impact of media and technology on individuals and society. In 2013, she published a highly cited theory that explains why some individuals are more influenced by media and technology than others. She leads an interdisciplinary team in developing a person-specific media effects methodology, enabling researchers to pinpoint who experiences negative, positive, or no effects from social media and why.
Valkenburg always strives for impactful and accessible research that supports societal questions. She is the founding mother of the Dutch media rating system, which has been adopted in many countries. She has advised the Dutch government, parliament, and the European Commission on questions related to media and technology. Her scholarly contributions have been recognized by multiple prestigious grants and awards, including an ERC Advanced Grant (2010), the Interdisciplinary Contribution Award (2022), and the Innovation Award for Method (2023). In 2011, she received the Spinoza Award, the highest academic award in the Netherlands.
Valkenburg is a fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Holland Society of Science and Humanities, and the Academia Europaea. Her commitment to accessible knowledge is evident in her latest open-access book, Plugged In, published by Yale University Press and translated into different languages.
