Nominees for the Ben Feringa Impact Award to be announced

The nominees for the Ben Feringa Impact Award 2023 have been selected. On 25 May, a group of UG researchers and students will compete for the coveted nanocar statue and eternal glory.

This year’s award ceremony will take place at the Groningen Forum and Ben Feringa himself will present the award to the winning researchers and students. With the Ben Feringa Impact Award, the UG wants to boost the recognition and rewarding of impact-driven academic research.

Faculties were given until the end of last year to nominate researchers and students for the award. The nominations are as follows:

Nominated researchers

● George Azzopardi and Guru Swaroop Bennabhaktula, Forensics against child sexual abuse: 4NSEEK, Faculty of Science and Engineering

● Marije Michel and Seyit Gök, English Academy for Newcomers Groningen, Faculty of Arts

● Laura Peters, Plea bargaining in criminal cases, Faculty of Law

● Bettina van Hoven, Mapping the Inclusive City, University College Groningen

● Ody Sibon, From fundamental research in fruit fly models to patients, in six years, Faculty of Medical Sciences/UMCG

Nominated students

● Le Minh Nguyen, Improving Luxembourgish Speech Recognition with Cross-Lingual Speech Representations, Campus Fryslân

● Ryan Bolt, Charlotte Hoogers, Candelas Gross Valle, Nina Valentini, Yuna van den Brom, Anne Lebediva, Streetfront: Stories about Perseverance, Resilience and Running in the Downtown Eastside, Honours College

● Max Halsema, Placement at Nationale Politie, Politie Noord Nederland [Placement at the National Police Force, the Northern Netherlands Police Force], Faculty of Arts

● Nine van den Wijngaard, Complaining about lawyers as occupational therapy: a study into the legal options available to the 'deken' in disciplinary law to act against frequent complainants, Faculty of Law

● Marie Fournier, Elena Delea, Birgit Eggink, Sexual Wellness Education Initiative (SWEI), University College Groningen

The jury

By mid-February, a jury with representatives from academia, the government, and the industry will consider the nominees and choose two honourable mentions and a winner in both categories. The jury, led by Anne Wil Lucas, Manager of Innovation and Internationalization at the NOM since November, - comprises Jacquelien Scherpen, Professor of Discrete Technology and Production Automation, Ton Vries, Head of Innovation and Technology at Symeres, Benjamin Leruth (assistant professor of European Politics and Society, Theme Director of the Rudolf Agricola School, and Chair of the Young Academy Groningen, and Dewi Koster, (student assessor of the Board of the University.