When Does It Begin?

Dr. Ellen van der Plas is an assistant professor at the University of Iowa Hospital & Clinics. Ellen received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Developmental Psychology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. She moved to the US in 2007 for graduate school at the University of Iowa. In 2011, she obtained her PhD degree in neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Peg Nopoulos. She moved to Toronto, Canada that same year to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children. Broadly speaking, Ellen is interested in neurocognitive development in the context of medical illness, and her research experience spans various populations, including children born with congenital conditions and/or developmental disorders, childhood cancer, Myotonic Dystrophy and Huntington's Disease.