At the Waaier, all was still. One could hear a pin drop. Or as it so happened, a noisy mobile phone ring, yet that did not deter the patient rector in his opening speech. He waited with a watchful eye for the silence to return and the evening continued- without further interruptions from the outside world.
The second speaker on the program, professor Hans Kuiper, highlighted that `the future supplies of energy and ground substances for human society form a huge challenge.' He indicated that for quality research, a multidisciplinary cooperation forms an essential tool for reaching technological solutions that in the end can greatly benefit society.
Following Kuiper's speech was a musical intermezzo including, among two other songs, the classical music of Johan Sebastian Bach. Saxophonist Michael Jamieson played with accordionist Ellen Zijm to complete the intermezzo with a soulful duet.
Coming next on stage, Israel professor Ora Kedem (age 82)-known fondly as the `mother of membrane technology-' was bestowed an honorary doctorate for her work in the field of biological and synthetic membranes.
Zijm next announced the winner of the Herman de Winter award (2,500 euros) for top female talent that was awarded to a young scientist, Dr. Pamela Habibovic from the faculty of Science and Technology. Her award-winning article about osteo-inductive biomaterials concerns the subject of orthopedic research.
Concluding the cermony, Dr. Christian Nijhuis won the scientific prize (5,000 euros) that was awarded by the Province of Overijssel for his work concentrating in the field of nanotechnology research on supramolecular systems. This cum laude graduate from the UT department of Science and Technology now holds a post-doc position at Harvard University. Nijhuis has published thirteen articles, all of which were published in top peer-reviewed journals and his dissertation was considered the best out of all PhD candidates at the UT last year.
