Hydrologist Van Emmerik was previously awarded a Veni grant for his plastics monitoring project. Photo: Tim Mossholder via Unsplash The popular science magazine New Scientist will announce today the 15 nominees for the title of ‘the greatest science talent of the Netherlands and Flanders’. Among them is a WUR researcher: Tim van Emmerik, the ‘plastics researcher’. He talks to Resource about his research in the very first episode of Sofa Science:
Van Emmerik refers to the nomination as ‘an honour’ and ‘nice’, but he’s mostly pleased with the recognition and access to the wider public it gives his research field. “This kind of nomination is a welcome opportunity to once again share the story of plastic pollution with a large group of people. It’s also a great boost for the many parties we work with for this research. They can see that the topic is attracting attention; that they’re not working for nothing.”
Platform
This is the seventh edition of this competition which, in the words of New Scientist, is designed to give a platform to the research of young scientists. The title is partly a public prize; the public can help decide who the winner is by casting their vote before 15 September via the New Scientist website.
The final decision rests with the jury, which this year includes Dutch Research Council President (NWO) Marcel Levi. The jury choose the first, second, and third nominees from the five candidates with the most votes. Their names will be announced during the Weekend of Science, on 7 and 8 October. The winner will win a cash prize of €1,500 and an invitation to present their research at the Gala of Science in early November.
Drawing votes
Van Emmerik will definitely do his best to get enough votes for a position in the top five, he says. Laughing: “The only thing is: I just got off Twitter. Clearly, that’s not so convenient now. Maybe I should reactivate my account after all.”
Update: News that Bernadette de Bakker (1986) has been crowned New Scientist Science Talent 2023 reached us at the start of October. De Bakker, an assistant professor at Amsterdam UMC, focuses her research on embryonal and foetal development using micro-CT and 3D Ultrasound technology, enabling her to map embryonal development with unprecedented detail.
