Advancing Women in Biology Fund laureates 2023/2024

Advancing Women in Biology Fund laureates 2023/2024

Iris van den Boomgaard (WUR) and Sacha Spelier (UMCU) are the first laureates of the new Advancing Women in Biology Fund, congratulations Iris and Sacha!

The Advancing Women in Biology fund is newly established by the LNVH in response to the generous donation from LNVH affiliate, prof. dr. Charlotte Hemelrijk, emeritus professor of self-organization in social systems at the Department of Behavioural Ecology and Self-Organisation of the University of Groningen. Prof. dr. Charlotte Hemelrijk will provide the funds for one annual grant to stimulate the career of women PhD students working in biology to the higher echelons of academia through, for instance, a short period of cooperation with a senoir researcher abroad. Additionally, the LNVH has decided to extend the program to include an additional grant, resulting in a total of two grants available each year.

Iris van den Boomgaard is a PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research, working in the Human Nutrition & Health division. She will be using the grant to visit one of the CHAIN’s (Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition) research facilities of the Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Program (KWTRP). There she will be researching new methods to combat malnutrition.

Sacha Spelier is a PhD candidate at University Medical Center Utrecht, working in the Pediatric Pulmonology division. Sacha will be using the grant to collaborate with John Lueck, principal investigator at the Univerisity of Rochester Medical Center (USA). With Lueck, she will be conducting further research and learn a new research technique in the field of Cystic Fibrosis.

At the annual LNVH Spring Symposium, that will take place on June 14 2024, the AWiB-fund grants will be presented during a festive ceremony.