Today, during the celebration of the Dies Natalis of the University of Twente, the Professor De Winter Award was presented to Dr Séverine Le Gac, MSc and Professor Marieke Huisman, MSc. It is the first time in the history of this publication award for female top talent that the award is presented to two researchers. Le Gac is connected to the UT research institutes MESA+ and MIRA; Huisman's research is part of the CTIT.
This year the jury of the Professor De Winter Award could not make a choice between the two best candidates, as both researchers have published a fantastic article in prominent scientific journals according to the jury. In addition to that the jury says that both Huisman and Le Gac have an outstanding academic reputation, an impressive list of publications and citations, their research is of the highest quality and socially relevant and both researchers are part of a network with prominent researchers in their fields of expertise. For that reason the jury has decided - for the first time in the history of the award - to present the Professor De Winter award to two candidates.
Séverine Le Gac
Séverine Le Gac is Associate Professor at the University of Twente. She leads the Microfluidics for Nanomedicine department and is responsible for the Strategic Research direction Nanomedicine of research institute MESA+, which builds the bridge between two spearheads of the UT: nano and bio. Her research focuses on the development of miniaturized machines for medical and pharmaceutical applications.
Le Gac received the Professor De Winter Award for the article "A microfluidic system supports single mouse embryo culture leading to full-term development" that has been published in the scientific journal Royal Society of Chemistry Advances/ RSC Advances. The research demonstrates the feasibility of a microfluidic system to grow mouse embryos before implanting them. According to the jury the research could eventually make an important contribution to diminishing the chance of complications with in-vitro fertilization of people.
Marieke Huisman
Marieke Huisman is Professor with the Formal Methods and Tools department, part of the CTIT research institute. She's working on research into the reliability and the accuracy of software. She designs tools that help programmers develop software free from errors. She received various awards and grants before, including a prestigious ERC Starting Grant and the Dutch award for ICT research 2013. According to the jury Huisman belongs to the absolute top of her generation. The jury also praises the efforts of Huisman to interest youngsters - and then especially girls - for science and technology.
Huisman received the Professor De Winter Award for the article "Specification and verification of GPGPU programs" which has been published in the scientific journal Science of Computer programming.
Professor de Winter Award
The Professor De Winter Award, named after the professor who passed away in 2005, is an international publication award for female top talent. The award is intended as recognition for excellent scientific research and as an incentive for the continued development of an academic career. The award for female top talent is made possible by a donation from the late Ms de Winter (passed away on 25 April 2013) in collaboration with the University Fund and consists of a sum of money of 2500 euros and a certificate. The Professor De Winter Award is presented to the winners by the Rector Magnificus during the Dies Natalis every year.
