Winner Dr. Linda Strande had already had a busy program when she was delivered from our Praeses Magnificus Burg on September 20, 2024. Aboutaleb received the ‘International Steven Hoogendijk Award’ medal, with a public lecture at TU Delft on Thursday afternoon and a seminar on Friday morning in her field: ‘Urban Non-sewered Sanitation’.

Dr. Linda Strande was unanimously nominated on the theme of water by a jury consisting of: prof.dr.ir. Merle de Kreuk (Vz), and the members prof.dr.ir. Jules van Lier, prof.dr.ir. Tania Vasconcelos Fernandes and prof.dr.ir. Mark van Loosdrecht. In addition to the very extensive track record, the work of Dr. He also enjoyed the efforts of Steven Hoogendijk and the Society to regulate hygiene in the canals of Rotterdam in the mid-18th century with a wind-independent pumping station.

This time the ceremony took place in the Prinses Theater because the Citizens’ Hall was in use for Mayor Aboutaleb’s farewell. Pres. Dir. prof.dr. Maikel Peppelenbosch started the ceremony with a word of thanks to Burg. Aboutaleb for 15 years of chairmanship and presented him with the ‘Steven Hoogendijk’ medal. He then gave the floor to Prof. Dr. Damir Brdjanovic for a general introduction to Water Sanitation and Urban Non-sewered Sanitation in particular.

The Laudatio was delivered by Prof. Merle de Kreuk, who discussed in detail the merits of Linda Strande for standardization and enthusiasm through education in the field of ‘Urban Non-sewered Sanitation’ in the rapidly growing slums of the megacities in the ‘Global South’. After which Mayor Aboutaleb performed his last official act for the Society with the presentation of the ‘International Steven Hoogendijk Award’ to Linda Strande.

This was followed by a word of thanks to Linda Strande.

The day ended with drinks and dinner during which there was extensive discussion about the day’s events and the postponed ‘President-Director change’ from Maikel Peppelenbosch to Kees Vuik with a nice speech by Maikel about the correlations between famous scientists and their membership of the Society was ratified.

You can watch the seminar and ceremony in the links below:

Seminar, before the break (here) and after the break (here) with Powerpoint Dr. Konstantina Velkushanova (here) and Powerpoint Prof. Doris van Halem (here) and Powerpoint Prof. Ana de Roda Husman (here) and Powerpoint Ir. Marij Zwart (here).

And ceremony (here).