PhD Supervisor of the Year 2023 Clemens Mayer

Dr. Clemens Mayer has been awarded the PhD Supervisor of the Year Award 2023. He is Associate Professor Molecular Evolution at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry. From 2018 onwards, the PhD Council, in collaboration with the sounding board, annually awards the PhD Supervisor of the Year Award within the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

The winner has been announced during the Faculty Opening of the Academic Year on Monday, September 4. Mayer was chosen unanimously by the Council this year.

His students consistently praise his infectious enthusiasm for his work, great attentiveness to the needs and wants of his individual students and his fantastic understanding of his field of research and experimental work being done in his lab.

Runner-ups

The runner-ups this year were: Dr. Gosia Włodarczyk-Biegun and Prof. Bart Besselink.

Dr. Gosia Włodarczyk-Biegun, from the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, who has been praised by her students to have an almost magical ability to always find the balance between giving her students independence and guidance in their PhD journey.

Prof. Bart Besselink, from the Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. His students appreciate that he never dismisses any of their ideas out of hand, listens carefully to their progress and problems, and knows to stimulate them to new ideas. Besselink could be present during the award so he was represented by PhD students Anne-Men Huijzer and Brayan Shali (pictured below).

Selection of the candidates

Every year, the PhD students of the Faculty are invited to nominate their supervisor for their outstanding supervisory practices. Based on the feedback and praise provided by the students, the finalists and winner are chosen by voting by the PhD Council.

The selection of the finalists and the winner is done by the Council, based on the feedback provided by those students. This year, they received 14 unique nominations out of which the 3 finalists were selected.

Opening of the Academic Year

The Opening of the Academic Year serves as the perfect platform for this award. The festive event took place in the Energy Academy with the presence of about 200 colleagues and student representatives.