Jaap R.C. Ham

“My passion: To understand and develop technology for behavior change.”

Jaap Ham is an Associate Professor in the Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His research ambition is to be leading in the field of (Ambient) Persuasive Technology, studying the basic and applied mechanisms of how technology can influence people. In his research, Jaap focuses on ambient forms of technology (such as lighting and behavior change in Virtual Reality) and social forms of technology (such as social robots) to influence people with, and on influencing two kinds of behavior: health behavior (for example  exercise behavior, medication adherence) and sustainability (energy conservation, littering, etc.). 

The aim of dr. Ham’s research is to rigorously answer theory-driven and problem-driven questions, preferably in applied settings, contributing to creating effective applications. He studies these questions in a team of researchers with interdisciplinary backgrounds, and in close collaboration with industry (such as Philips Research, DAF, Smart Homes, Enversed).  Jaap enjoys working in continuously changing, creative environments, investigating commercially interesting, effective solutions for societal problems and has set up a large (international) network of researchers and innovators from industry and academia. 

Jaap Ham obtained his PhD in Social Psychology and Social Cognition from Radboud University Nijmegen in 1994. At Utrecht University, he investigated the social cognition of social justice as a post-doc. He joined TU/e in 2007 as an Assistant Professor and became Associate Professor in 2012. In close interaction with his scientific work, dr. Ham also provides consultancy to startups and industry to help develop the most effective behavior change innovations.  

Dr. Ham has won several Best Paper and Best Teacher awards, has published more than 100 journal papers (e.g, Psychology, Health & Medicine, Journal of Environmental Psychology and International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction) and conference proceedings papers. He has organized several scientific conferences (e.g. ICSR2011, Symbiotic 2017), and has served on many program committees, and as program chair of Persuasive2017.

Dr. Ham has acquired several large research grants (e.g., the H2020 MAMEM project), has supervised a large number of PhD students, and has extensive experience in managing research projects and academic affairs.