Praeses Magnificus Burg. Aboutaleb will open the well-attended 122nd General Meeting at KR&ZV De Maas (here) at 2:30 PM and extend a warm welcome to the more than 80 prize winners, guests and members of the Society present. After a brief summary of the events of the past two years by the President, Prof. Dr. Maikel Peppelenbosch and the reading of a token of affection to our Protectrix H.R.H. Princess Beatrix will move on to the busy program of the presentation of the medical and technical Steven-Hoogendijk Prize and study prizes.

This time the medical Steven-Hoogendijk Prize 2023 went to Dr. Floris Roos for his dissertation: ‘Studying the Biliary Tree using Organoid-Technology‘, which was awarded by the jury consisting of: Dr. Gwenny Fuhler (EMC), Dr. Yuri van der Burgt (LUMC) and Dr. Arjo Loeve (TUD) was nominated. The laudatio with explanation of this lecture by Dr. Gwenny Fuhler and the personal word by the supervisor Prof.dr. You can find Luc van der Laan (here). And Dr. Roos’ presentation on making it possible to study the living, diseased or not, Biliary Tree outside the body, can be found (here).

The 2023 technical Steven-Hoogendijk Prize went to Dr. Xiao Xue for his dissertation: ‘Performance Benchmarking of Silicon Quantum Processors‘. Dr. Xue was unanimously nominated by the jury consisting of: Prof.dr.ir. Matthijs Langelaar (TUD), Prof.dr.ir. Mirjam Snellen (TUD) and Dr.ir. Robbert Kleerebezem (TUD). The laudation of Prof. Matthijs Langelaar and detailed explanation of the person of Xiao Xue by the supervisor Prof.dr.ir. Lieven Vandersypen and why he has already been published twice in Nature, once even on the cover, can be found (here). And Dr. Xue’s presentation on Quantum computing and achieving 99% reliability can be found (here).

After a short break, President Director Maikel Peppelenbosch takes over the gavel from Praeses Magnificus Aboutaleb who has other commitments.

As the first study prize, Prof. Peppelenbosch asks Drs. Daniek Teijema and her supervisor Dr. Casper Rokx to come forward. Mrs. Teijema and Mrs. Drs. Sanne Jaarsma was chosen by Directors Peppelenbosch and Janssen from a list of 120 graduates from the period 2021 – 2023.

Dr. Rokx introduces Mrs. Teijema (here) and she gives a presentation about her work: ‘how the HIV virus hides’ (here). Maikel Peppelenbosch then asks Drs. Sanne Jaarsma and her supervisor Drs. Iris Levink forward. Drs. Levink introduces Mrs. Jaarsma (here) after which she explains her work on: ‘lifelong liver cyst surveillance’ (here).

After this, Prof. Peppelenbosch asks Ir. Marianne Schaaphok and her supervisor Prof.dr. Fred Vermolen to come forward. Mrs. Schaaphok and Mrs.Ir. Friederike Nintzel have been chosen by Directors Wieringa and Vuik from the 16 Best Graduates of 2021 and 2022 for the best theses of TU Delft in the field of Experimental Philosophy.

Prof. Vermolen explains the graduation subject and introduces Marianne Schaaphok (here) and Mrs. Schaaphok gave a presentation about her graduation work: ‘mathematical model for burns’ (here). Finally, Maikel Peppelenbosch asked Prof.dr. Frank Hollmann to emerge as supervisor and representative of Ir. Friederike Nintzel who is present Online from Cambridge. Prof. Hollmann explains so-called Green Chemistry for Medication, where the amount of waste for producing a pill: currently 1 – 2 kg/pill, is reduced as much as possible and how Mrs. Nintzel’s graduate work contributed to this (here). And then Mrs. Nintzel via Zoom about her graduation work (here).

The meeting was closed by Prof.dr.ir. Louise Fresco with a very interesting lecture on ‘Sustainability and food production’ that will make everyone think (here). Food production always involves more dimensional choices that are difficult to capture under one heading, making ‘the price’ an overly simplified measure to make a ‘right choice’. For example, choose between ‘yogurt with strawberry (flavour)’ or ‘yogurt with strawberries’. What is better? That better includes many dimensions such as: do the strawberries come from abroad, from the Netherlands or from the greenhouse? And how much energy does it take to make the strawberry flavor and add it to the yogurt. As in this example, it often turns out that the most industrially processed product is more sustainable than the ‘natural’ product. And with vegetarianism, for example, comments can be made, meaning that eating a minimum amount of meat / animal proteins per week is ‘better’ than being completely vegetarian.

With these comments, we will look differently at Proefondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte about the dishes offered during the drinks and the final dinner and there will be enjoyable discussions between the 50 winners, guests and members about more than the topics of the winning dissertations and graduation theses.