Portfolio

Puck Knipscheer received the Heineken Young Scientists Award for Biochemistry and Biophysics 2010 for her research at the interface of biochemistry and molecular cell biology.
Her PhD research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute has generated important new insights into the way that protein activity is regulated in cells. As a postdoc at Harvard Medical School, Puck Knipscheer studied how the genes responsible for Fanconi anaemia (a genetic disease that leads to bone marrow failure and in many cases to cancer) are involved in repairing damage to DNA. She will be establishing a research group at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht in late 2010.

Article
— Interview with Puck Knipscheer in Akademie Nieuws (Dutch)

Dr Menno van Zelm received the Heineken Young Scientists Award for Medicine 2010 for his research on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that cause antibody deficiencies, i.e. serious immune system disorders.
His research is important for our understanding of immune disorders, how the body fights infection, and what causes inflammatory diseases and serious bone marrow and lymph node disorders. Menno van Zelm works at Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam.

Article
— Interview with Menno van Zelm in Akademie Nieuws (Dutch)

Remco Breuker received the Heineken Young Scientists Award for History 2010 for his research on Korean identities.
He places Korean medieval history within the broader theoretical context of community and identity. His PhD research led to new perspectives on how societies can be founded on contradictory principles a field that is far from being exhausted. He depicts Korea’s past as a complex and discontinuous whole full of contrasts, paradoxes and ambiguity, but one that was nevertheless decisive in constructing Korean identities.
Remco Breuker works at the University of Leiden. 

Article
— Interview with Remco Breuker in Akademie Nieuws (Dutch)

Appy Sluijs received the Heineken Young Scientists Award for Environmental Sciences 2010 for his research into the changes that arose in the earth’s ecosystems millions of years ago.
He reconstructs sudden climate changes caused by natural processes in the past. His research helps us understand the variability of ecosystems, the climate and natural processes on both human and geological timescales. Sluijs focuses in particular on climate changes in the past that resemble those in the present, making it possible to consider the influence of humankind (for example CO2 emissions) in a geological context. Appy Sluijs works at the University of Utrecht and is a member of the Royal Academy’s Young Academy.

Article
— Interview with Appy Sluijs in Akademie Nieuws (Dutch)

Paola Escudero received the Heineken Young Scientists Award for Cognitive Science 2010 for her research on second language speech learning.
Her PhD research at the University of Utrecht concerned phonological categories in polyglots. Paola Escudero has developed a model within the context of Optimality Theory that describes the cognitive processes that speakers go through when forming sounds that are unknown in their native language. As a postdoc, she is currently conducting psycholinguistic research in order to test her theoretical model experimentally. Paola Escudero works at the University of Amsterdam.

Article
— Interview with Paola Escudero in Akademie Nieuws (Dutch)