Four students from Wageningen University have received a Thesis Award from the University Fund Wageningen. Annelieke Wentzel won the Overall Thesis Award for MSc thesis, which the jury assessed as excellent. The other students who won the Thesis Awards were Shenglue Huang, Bas Groeneveld and Michiel Karrenbelt.
The award ceremony was divided into two parts. Firstly, during a ceremony, held during the morning and attended by family, friends, the judges and Janine Quist (KLV), the four winners the Thesis Award on 9 March 2016 were granted. During the symposium, preceding the celebration of the 98th Dies Natalis of Wageningen UR, prof. Richard Visser, Dean of Research of the university, announced the overall winner.
The winner, chosen from 21 nominations, of the Overall Thesis Award, Annelieke Wentzel is now a PhD candidate at the chair group Cell Biology and Immunology. She received €1000 and flowers, and there were €500 for each of the other winners. In addition, all candidates received a bronze sculpture of the ‘Wageningen tree’ by Sjoerd Buisman, as well as a diploma and a jury report.
Annelieke Wentzel wrote her award-winning thesis Koi herpesvirus Il10: Bioactivity and signalling pathway under the supervision of Maria Forlenza, Carla Piazzon en Prof. Geert Wiegertjes, Cell Biology and Immunology.
The jury was impressed with the design of all experiments and the excellent data that were generated. According to the jury, Her findings are very helpful in designing new immunological strategies including new vaccines to protect Koi carp against Koi Herpes Virus.
The other winners and their thesis subjects were:
Environmental sciences
Shengle Huang, Environmental Sciences
Title thesis: ‘Optimization of Methanol-based Mixed Culture Chain Elongation’
Supervisor: David Strik, Wei-Shan Chen; chair holder: prof. Huub Rijnaarts
Social sciences
Bas Groeneveld, Management, Economics & Consumer Studies
Title thesis: ‘Examining Economic Fluctuations and Agribusiness Strategies: A Longitudinal Perspective on Economic Fluctuations, Western Agribusiness Strategies and Performance’
Supervisor: Emiel Wubben; chair holder: prof. Onno Omta
Agrotechnology and Food sciences
Michiel Karrenbelt, Bioinformatics & Biotechnology
Title thesis: ‘Yeast-like development in Aspergillus niger; A quest for genetic determinants of morphogenesis in strive for tailor made morphologies.’
Supervisor: Peter Schaap, chair holder: prof. Vitor Martins dos Santos.
University Fund Wageningen
The University Fund Wageningen received 21 nominations in total. In forming their judgement, the jury paid particular attention to technical/scientific quality, written presentation, applicability in practice and the quality of the research in the academic field in question. The KLV Wageningen Alumni Network donated the prize money.
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