In Memoriam: Annemarie Scholte Eigenhuis (1982-2018)
Amber Gayle Thalmayer
We regret to report the untimely loss of a brilliant young personality psychologist, whose contributions to our field had only just began. After a BA degree at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) Annemarie travelled to the University of Oregon on a Fullbright scholarship in 2008, completing an insightful, sophisticated master's thesis on personality differences across situations, supervised by Gerard Saucier. While there she also collaborated with him and myself on a study comparing the predictive validity of popular personality measures which has since been cited over 130 times.
In 2010 Annemarie returned to UvA as a doctoral candidate to work with Jan Henk Kamphuis and Auke Tellegen on the adaptation of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) into Dutch. She published 8 articles during her time as a Ph.D. candidate, including tests of measurement invariance of the MPQ between general and clinical samples, and between the United States and Netherlands. Among others, she collaborated with Arjen Noordhof, Martin Sellbom, and Merel Kindt. She also collaborated with her husband, UvA professor of neuroscience Steven Scholte, on whether personality can be predicted on the basis of brain anatomy (her clear, yet unpublished result is no).
In 2016 (ABD) Annemarie was appointed Assistant Professor of clinical psychology at UVA, and she began training master's students in clinical psychology, sharing her statistical expertise and knowledge of clinical assessment.
In November 2017 Annemarie hosted a large, joyful celebration for her dissertation defense ("To know personality is to measure it"). Unknowingly, she was already suffering from throat cancer, which was diagnosed shortly thereafter. The cancer was treated aggressively, and Annemarie remained her brave, sweet, and very wise self throughout the ordeal. Tragically, treatment was not effective, and she passed away on November 19, 2018. Annemarie is painfully mourned by her husband, daughter, extended family, friends, and colleagues. She was a warm, loyal friend to many of us, who are still coming to terms with the shock of losing someone so young and vital, with such a promising future ahead of her. Annemarie's loss is keenly felt in the psychology department of the University of Amsterdam, where flowers and pictures still adorn a memorial spot in the hallway of the department, and a scholarship fund in her name has been established.
