Marja Berendsen studied History and Arts at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Since 1998 she worked as a PhD-student at the History Department of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Her PhD research was about the History of the Modern Efficient Kitchen in the Netherlands. Her publications on the modern efficient kitchen appeared in volume IV of Techniek in Nederland in de twintigste eeuw, in Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis and in the German journal Technikgeschichte. As of 2004, she works at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research(NWO).