A total of twelve researchers will receive Early Career Awards this year in recognition of their scientific talent – not only visible in their innovative and original research, but also in how they, as scientists, embrace their roles as inspirations, mentors and teachers. All laureates will receive €15,000 for their research and a sculpture by artist Laura Klinkenberg. The awards will be presented on Tuesday, 18 November, during a ceremony at the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam.

The UvA laureates

• Laurien Vastenhout (History department / NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies) conducts research on genocide and mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews during the Second World War. What survival strategies did they use? How weak or strong are love, loyalty and identity under extreme circumstances? Vastenhout is able to articulate such particularly sensitive themes effectively in the public debate, while maintaining an eye for nuance.
   
• Rixt Woudstra (Art History capacity group) researches colonial architecture in Africa and Asia, such as warehouses, factories, plantations and ports. What role did such locations play in colonial trade networks? Woudstra combines historical archival material with on-site research, in collaboration with local experts. In this way, she highlights the long-underexposed industrial colonial heritage, broadening our perspective on the past.
   
• Emma Birnie (Amsterdam Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Amsterdam UMC) studies the tropical infectious disease melioidosis. The results of her research support the suspicion that the disease is much more common in southern Africa than official data indicates. Birnie is giving this "hidden" disease the attention it needs to achieve effective control in that region. She combines her scientific work with public awareness campaigns, thus creating an impact among non-scientists as well.