Biomedical Sciences

Caroline Klaver Laureate 2015

Eye-diseases are rapidly becoming more significant: there are already more than 300,000 blind and visually impaired people in the Netherlands. Due to the aging population this number will increase explosively in the coming years. Caroline Klaver is a scientific researcher and ophthalmologist, and a driving force behind research into the root causes of some of the most common eye problems.

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Thijn Brummelkamp Laureate 2015

Thijn Brummelkamp is an energetic, critical and entrepreneurial scientist researching the function of each of the approximately 25,000 genes in the human body. He began by developing a way to turn off each of these genes one by one. Then he invented an even smarter method to do the same with a number of genes at the same time.

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Humanities

Barteld Kooi Laureate 2015

Philosopher Barteld Kooi combines almost impenetrable abstract information science with everyday applications such as card games and the National Science Quiz. His work focuses on transcribing complex information problems into mathematical formulas. Which logical strategy in a game gives the best outcome? And what happens if in addition to logic probability also comes into play?

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Asifa Majid Laureate 2015

Why are we so bad at describing what we smell? Why do we have words for colours but not for scents? Have we lost that capability in evolution? Or is it due to our upbringing? Asifa Majid undertakes innovative fieldwork among various cultures and peoples to find new answers to questions about connections between brains, language and culture.

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Natural Sciences

Ronald Hanson Laureate 2015

In the legendary science fiction film Star Trek Captain Kirk is teleported home from far away in the universe by his chief engineer "Scotty". Physicists, including Ronald Hanson, have been trying to do something vaguely similar. "Quantum teleportation," is an experiment by which information is transferred without the use of sound, light or any other form of energy.

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Arwen Deuss Laureate 2015

Under a thin hard crust planet Earth is a sphere within which liquid rock slowly flows around. But inside the flowing mass a hard globe has been discovered. It was suspected that such a thing existed but the evidence for it was only delivered when Arwen Deuss succeeded in picking up and analysing weak but characteristic seismic waves.

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Social Sciences

Serge Dumoulin Laureate 2015

Which nerves connect our senses with our cerebral cortex? How do our brains become conscious of sensory stimuli? And how does that ultimately result in an understanding of what is happening around us? These are the kind of questions that Serge Dumoulin is engaged in, and which put him on the trail of a congenital abacus in our brain.

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Frank van Tubergen Laureate 2015

Why do we often choose friends and partners with the same ethnic background? What is the impact of this segregation on social opportunities? Why is America's income inequality much greater than that in Europe? These are the very topical questions that fascinate Frank van Tubergen and for which he seeks scientific and not ideological answers.

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