Faculty of Science

Awards and Grants 2024

On this page you will find an overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2024, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

Alessandra Silvestri received an ERC Consolidator grant for large-scale gravity research.
Amanda Foks received a grant from the Dutch Heart Foundation for research on treating atherosclerosis with an anti-inflammatory drug.
Peter Grünwald received an ERC Advanced Grant for his research into the development of a new, revolutionary theory of statistics.
Rob van Wijk received a grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) together with the Preclinical Design and Clinical Translation of TB Regimens consortium for research into better tuberculosis medicines.
Hermen Overkleeft received the Roy L. Whistler International Award 2024 from the International Carbohydrate Orgasation for his contribution the field of carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry.
Carlo Beenakker has been appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), mainly because of his pioneering work on electrical conduction in nanostructures.
Sander van Kasteren received a Proof of Concept grant from the ERC to test immune activators in a preclinical cancer model.
Kim Bonger received a Proof of Concept grant from the ERC to explore wheter THRONCAT can quickly and accurately map signaling proteins and biomarkers secreted by cells.
Nathaniel Martin received a Proof of Concept grant from the ERC to further validate the effectiveness of a new class of antibiotics.
Marta Artola Perez de Azanza received an ERC starting grant with the Sweet Degradation project for research on protein degradation in the golgi complex.
Marco Cinelli won the EURO Award for the best EJOR-Paper with his paper Recommending Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis Methods with a New Taxonomy-Based Decision Support Sstem.
Martina Viver received an Una Europe-Africa grant with the project PEAKSOLVE, which researches the challenges surrounding the world's peak population.
Grégory Schneider received an ERC Synergy Grant for research on 2D membranes used in separation techniques.
Ákos Kovács received an ERC Synergy Grant for research on the biological clock in bacteria.

Marta Fiocco and her team received a KWF grant to treat Ewing sarcoma with the help of an app.
Jos Raaijmakers was appointed as new scientific member of the KHMW.
Elena Maria Rossi received a Vici for her research on small black holes.
Aline de Almeida Vidotto received a Vici for her research on the interaction of stellar radiation and winds with the leaking atmospheres of exoplanets.
The Advanced Nano-electrochemistry Institute Of the Netherlands (ANION), led by Marc Koper, received Gravity funding for research in new efficient electrochemical technologies.
The Institute for Chemical Neuroscience (iCNS), led by Mario van der Stelt, received Gravity funding for developing a 'brain atlas' of psychiatric symptoms and developing entirely new approaches to improve the diagnosis and treatments of psychiatric syndromes.
Anne Wentink received Gravity funding with her research project FLOW to understand the cell's quality control process in a way that the knowledge can be used to cure and prevent diseases, such as Alzheimer's, parkinson's, cystic fibrosis and haemophilia.
Roeland Merks received a Gravity funding with his research project Green Tissue Engineering (GreenTE) to develop new strategies to improve the propagation and immunity of crops.
Carlo Beenakker and Bas Hensen received an NWO Summit Grant to investigate fundamental quantum limits.
Ionica Smeets received an honorary doctorate from the Open University for being an example of how science communication can bridge the gap between experts and the general public.
Joke Bouwstra received a royal distinction for her outstanding contributions to science.
Geert de Snoo has been appointed Director of Research Policy at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Rob van Nieuwpoort received an NWO grant with contribution from the business sector to develop an AI-driven co-design methodology to generate effective and efficient code for computer hardware under development.
Micheal Richardson received an NWO grant with contribution from business sector to develop an alternative to early destroying of roosters. The technique allows the hatching of male eggs to be stopped painlessly.
Marta Fiocco received a KiKa grant to study the effect of chemotherapy adjustments.
Joost Batenburg received an NWO grant to improve conservation of historical paintings using 3D X-ray imaging.
Valerio Barbarossa received a Veni for research on the effects of mining on biodiversity in freshwater systems and integrating these effects into methodologies for assessing the sustainability of products and processes.
Willem Jespers received a Veni for research on molecules using artificial intelligence that can selectively block mutated G proteins.
Anne-Grete Märtson received a Veni for research on improving virus treatment, preventing resistance and reducing the need for animal testing and clinical trials using laboratory infection models and computational methodologies.
Iain Muntz received a Veni for research on protein condensates.
Matthias Barz and Sebastian Pomplun received an Open Competition ENW-M grant for research on precision chemistry-designed nanoparticles that can be an alternative to antibodies.
Sander van Kasteren received an Open Competition ENW-M grant for research on hungry immune cells in tumors.
Semonti Bhattacharyya received an Open Competition ENW-XS grant for research on an alternative of the Von Neumann architecture in computers, to make computers more efficient in the future.
Daniel Rozen received an Open Competition ENW-XS grant for research on finding new antibiotics by mimicking competition between bacteria in a laboratory.
Thomas Bäck, Yingjie Fan, Marc Koper and Rik Mom are participating in the consortium HyPRO funded by the NWO for research into more sustainable production of hydrogen.
Francesca Arici received a Vidi grant for research on classifying different objects in quantum spaces.
Sebastiaan Haffert received a Vidi grant for research on the future European Extremely Large Telescope.
Melissa McClure received a Vidi grant for research on understanding why the universe has so many different types of exoplanets.
Renske Onstein received a Vidi grant to research how the extinction of megafauna affected the seed dispersal of megafruit palm trees.
Mirko Signorelli received a Vidi grant for research on an improved statistical method for forecasting disease.

Yamila Miguel received the title Teacher of the Year 2023 for her creativity, dedication, broad outlook beyond her own research area and commitment to state-of-the-art research.
Sara Seager received an honorary doctorate for the academic and societal importance of her research on exoplanets.
Luca Giomi was appointed professor of The0ratical Physics.
Michiel Hogerheijde was appointed programme director of the master Astronomy.
Irene Groot was appointed professor of Surface and Interface Science.
Diego Garlaschelli was appointed professor of Theoretical Physics.
Ilze Bot was appointed professor of Cardiovascular Pharmacology.
Sense Jan van der Molen was appointed scientific director of the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION).
Dimitris Krommydas, in collaboration with Livio Nicola Carenza and Luca Giomi, won the LION Image Award 2023.
Marc Koper received an honorary doctorate from the University of Antwerp in recognition of his expertise in electrochemistry.
Miranda van Eck was appointed as Scientific Director of LACDR.
Hubertus Irth was appointed as Scientific Director of the IBL.
Maribel Adame Valero was appointed as Director of Operations of the IBL
Lies Bouwman was appointed as Director of Education of the LIC.
Daan van der Es was appointed as Programme Director of the Master's in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Reinout van Weeren was appointed as Programme Director of the Master's in Astronomy.
Amineh Ghorbani was appointed as Programme Director of the Master's in Industrial Ecology.
Dennis Janssen was appointed as Director of Operations of the Leiden Observatory.
Kelly Chibale received an honorary doctorate from Leiden University for his research focusing on the development of new drugs, particularly malaria and tuberculosis.

Bregje Brinkman received the C.J. Kok Jury Prize for the best dissertation of the year for her research on the safety of nanomaterials.
Annemarie Meijer was appointed confidential advisor for PhD candidates.
Sebastiaan Grosscurt received a Tegel for his data research on farmland registration.
Marie Depuydt received the Krijn Rietveld Doctoral Societal Impact Award for her discovery that arterial calcification resembles an autoimmune disease.

Dominique Lawson received the title Leiden Science Young Talent 2023 for his thesis, in which he converted a mathematical theorem into computer language.
Juliane Klaura won the second prize at the Leiden University Thesis Prizes 2024 for her master's thesis about animal welfare.
The MSc Life Science and Technology scored above average in the 'Keuzegids masters 2024', a guide to master’s programmes in the Netherlands.
Jurren de Groot received the Krijn Rietveld Graduate Societal Impact Award for developing a new computer model that helps scientists better predict whether and how a potential drug binds to RNA.
Brechtje de Jong and Ilse de Weert won the KNMP studentaward 2024 for their results in their Masters.