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Ammodo Science
Award for groundbreaking research2024 -
Ammodo Science Award
The Ammodo Science Award for groundbreaking research is intended to stimulate potentially groundbreaking research. Such research is usually the result of team work, and for that reason this Award is for research being carried out by a group of researchers working together, and is intended to recognise the contribution of every member of the group. The Award is presented every two years in four scientific domains: Biomedical Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences.
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Nomination & Selection
Each edition, the Ammodo Science Award for groundbreaking research includes a cash prize of 1,600,000 euros for each of the science domains Natural Sciences and Biomedical Sciences and a cash prize of 800,000 euros for each of the science domains Humanities and Social Sciences. The rectors of the fourteen Dutch universities affiliated to Universities of The Netherlands (UNL) may nominate a maximum of one research project per scientific domain.
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Winners
The Ammodo Science Award for groundbreaking research focuses on potentially groundbreaking research and ensures that all researchers involved in the winning project are recognised and rewarded.
Biomedical Sciences
Louis Vermeulen Laureate 2021
Louis Vermeulen studies how derailments in the genetic material of stem cells can cause colon cancer. In doing so, he focuses specifically on the earliest development of tumors. He combines biochemistry and genetics with mathematical and physical models to map the dynamics of stem cells. With his innovative approach, he has made a major contribution to fundamental concepts within molecular oncology.
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Annemieke Aartsma-Rus Laureate 2021
Annemieke Aartsma-Rus has made an important contribution to research in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Patients with this serious hereditary muscle disease lack the protein dystrophin, because the gene code for dystrophin is unreadable. Thanks in part to the fundamental pioneering work of Aartsma-Rus, an exon skipping therapy is now available in the USA and Japan that can make the genetic code readable again. This can slow down disease progression for Duchenne patients.
Read moreHumanities
Lisa Herzog Laureate 2021
Lisa Herzog analyses how moral and democratic norms can play a greater role in our economic system. What does it mean to act morally when employees feel like small cogs in the wheel of a large organisation? Herzog explores socially relevant issues such as these, always looking at the economic system from a philosophical perspective.
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Christian Lange Laureate 2021
Christian Lange studies classical Arabic and Persian literature and is a pioneer in the field of Arabic digital humanities. His innovative analysis of digitized historical texts has yielded new insights, including into how Islamic criminal law was actually applied and how the five senses were understood throughout the centuries in different intellectual Islamic traditions. Lange's research provides a multicoloured picture of the rich Islamic civilization.
Read moreNatural Sciences
Patricia Dankers Laureate 2021
Patricia Dankers designs, synthesizes, and investigates synthetic biomaterials that can control, mimic or even surpass complex biological processes in the human body. Using intelligent chemistry ageing or damaged tissue can be repaired. It is part due to her fundamental research that heart valves and vascular grafts made of synthetic biodegradable biomaterials exist, as well as synthetic hydrogels for the culture of stem cells.
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Walter Immerzeel Laureate 2021
Walter Immerzeel researches climate change in mountainous regions in Asia and its consequences for the availability of water for the millions of people living downstream. Immerzeel was the first to map the water cycle in the high mountains of the Himalayas. Over the next few years, he aims to understand thoroughly how natural disasters in mountain areas are related to their location and extreme weather, focusing on landslides, avalanches and glacial lakes.
Read moreSocial Sciences
Rivke Jaffe Laureate 2021
Rivke Jaffe conducts research on urban space and everyday urban life. She has published on topics including crime and citizenship in Jamaica, the popular culture of illegality, and public-private security arrangements. Jaffe explores how technologies that are supposed to lead to increased security - such as guns, barbed wire, cameras and algorithms, but also animals such as police dogs - can simultaneously reproduce or increase social inequality.
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Floris de Lange Laureate 2021
Floris de Lange studies how human perception arises from neurobiological processes in the brain. By measuring brain activity very precisely, he determines how information "flows" through the brain. Among other things, he has shown that our brain works like a prediction machine, actively using everything it learns to predict the future. Recently, De Lange has been studying why curiosity and surprise are important to the brain.
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