HomeNewsFloris van den Brink wins Kolthoff Prize

Floris van den Brink wins Kolthoff Prize Finalist 'Simon Stevin Gezel' as well

The biannual ‘I.M. Kolthoff Prize’ for analytical chemistry goes to UT scientist Floris van den Brink, for the microreactor he developed for medicine screening and other applications. Van Den Brink is also in this year’s finals of the ‘Simon Stevin Gezel’.

The Kolthoff Prize is awarded by the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society, section Chemical Analysis. The prize goes to a young researcher for important contributions to the field of analytical chemistry. It is named after Izaak Maurits Kolthoff (1894-1993), born in Almelo, who is seen as the ‘father of analytical chemistry’ and who teached at the University of Minnesota, amongst others.

Fast mixer

Floris van den Brink finished his PhD at the University of Twente in June 2016. In the BIOS Lab-on-a-Chip group of Prof. Albert van den Berg, he worked on a multi-purpose microreactor. One of the applications is detecting the effect of medication or toxic substances on proteins. Another is in the field of proteomics, where the chip is used for splitting up proteins for identification. Mixing of fluids on a micro or nano scale is not simple and, in general, slow. For studying the effect of toxics, speed is needed as these substances don’t live long. Van den Brink developed an innovative and fast mixer, of just 0,1 square millimeter in size.

SIMON STEVIN GEZEL

On November 9, Van den Brink may receive another prestigious prize as well.  He is one of three finalists of ‘Simon Stevin Gezel 2017’ for excellent young scientists, awarded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), section Applied and Technical Sciences. During the TEKNOWLOGY Innovation Festival, the audience will vote for the best of three finalists, after short pitches. The description of the nominees is here.

The PhD thesis of Floris van den Brink was titled Microreactor for electrochemical conversion: in drug screening and proteomics. One of his recent publications was in the ‘Lab on a Chip’ journal (see press release). At this moment, Van den Brink is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Twente and he’s working on a startup company.

ir. W.R. van der Veen (Wiebe)
Press relations (available Mon-Fri)