The Spinoza Prize is an annual award of 1.5 million euro prize money, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. It is named after the philosopher Baruch de Spinoza.
Franklin Gerardus "Frank" Grosveld, FRS is a Dutch molecular biologist whose research interests are in the regulation of transcription during development with a particular emphasis on mammalian erythroid differentiation. He is a professor and former Head of the Department of Cell Biology at the Erasmus MC, Rotterdam.
Izak "Ieke" Moerdijk is a Dutch mathematician, currently working at Utrecht University, who in 2012 won the Spinoza prize.
Piet Gros is a Dutch chemist and professor biomacromolecular crystallography at Utrecht University. In 2010 he received the NWO Spinoza Prize for the elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of the C3 protein, which plays a central role in the complement system and contributes to innate immunity.
The Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research is a research institute at Utrecht University. The Bijvoet Centre performs research on the relation between the structure and function of biomolecules, including proteins and lipids, which play a role in biological processes such as regulation, interaction and recognition. The Bijvoet Centre houses advanced infrastructures for the analysis of proteins and other biomolecules using NMR, X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and mass spectrometry. The institute is named after famous Dutch chemist Johannes Martin Bijvoet, who worked at Utrecht University.
Naomi Ellemers is a distinguished professor of social psychology at Utrecht University since September 2015.
Bert Marc Weckhuysen FRSC is a professor of inorganic chemistry and catalysis at Utrecht University, originally from Belgian descent. Weckhuysen is best known for his developments in operando (micro)spectroscopy; imaging catalysis at macro, meso and micro scales, from the reactor down to interactions between single atoms and molecules. He was a winner of the 2013 Spinoza Prize, and was knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2015.
Mike Jetten is a Dutch professor of Microbiology at the Radboud University Nijmegen. He was a winner of the 2012 Spinoza Prize.
Ineke Sluiter is a Dutch classicist and professor of Greek Language and Literature at Leiden University since 1998. Her research focuses on language, literature, and public discourse in classical antiquity. She was a winner of the 2010 Spinoza Prize. Sluiter has been president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since June 2020, and previously served as vice president from 2018 to 2020.
Anna Sergeevna Akhmanova is a Russian-born professor of Cell Biology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She is best known for her research regarding microtubules and the proteins, called TIPs, that stabilize one specific end of the tubules. Among the awards she has won, she was one of the recipients of the 2018 Spinoza Prize, the highest honor for Dutch scientists.
Marjo S. van der Knaap is a Dutch professor of pediatric neurology at VU University Amsterdam and Amsterdam University Medical Centers. She was a winner of the 2008 Spinoza Prize. Her research focuses on white matter disorders.
Isabel W.C.E. Arends is a Dutch chemist and professor of biocatalysis and organic chemistry at Utrecht University. She was appointed dean of its Faculty of Science in July 2018. Her research specializes in environmentally-friendly, or 'green', chemistry; for example, using enzymes as biocatalysts while avoiding the need for toxic solvents.
Sybren Otto is Professor of Systems chemistry at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen.
Jan Cornelis Maria van Hest is a Dutch scientist of organic chemistry, best known for his research regarding polymersomes and nanoreactors. He currently holds the position of professor of bioorganic chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology and is scientific director at the Institute of Complex Molecular Systems. Among the awards he has received, he was one of the recipients of the 2020 Spinoza Prize.
Maria Antonietta Loi is an Italian physicist who is a Professor of Optoelectronics at the University of Groningen and member of the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials. Her research considers the development of functional materials for low-cost, high efficiency optoelectronic device. She was awarded the 2018 Netherlands Physical Society Physics prize (Physicaprijs). In 2020, she was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 2022 she became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and of the European academy of Science. Loi is Deputy Editor-in-chief of Applied Physics Letters.
Reuven Agami is a Dutch cancer researcher. He is a professor of Oncogenomics at Erasmus University Rotterdam and head of the section of Oncogenomics at the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis. Since October 2023 the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has selected Reuven Agami as a member.
Nynke Hester Dekker is a Dutch biophysicist who is Professor of Molecular Biophysics at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology. Dekker studies individual DNA and RNA molecules and how they interact with proteins in bacteria, viruses and eukaryotes. She described how virus proteins build errors into the virus RNA of viruses. In 2020, she was awarded the Spinoza Prize.
Maria Yazdanbakhsh is a Dutch immunologist who is Professor of Cellular Immunology of Parasitic Infections and Head of the Department of Parasitology at the Leiden University Medical Center. She was elected Fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2023.
Peter Hagoort is a Dutch neuroscientist who studies the neurobiology of language.
Petra de Jongh is a Dutch materials chemist, currently working as a professor of Catalysts and Energy Materials at the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science at Utrecht University. Her research spans many fields, tackling issues like converting and storing renewable sources of energy, developing lighter, sustainable batteries, reducing energy consumption, and designing catalysts for chemical conversions. De Jongh is the first female winner of the Gilles Holst Medal, which is given to outstanding researchers in the Netherlands, who have made significant contributions to the fields of applied chemistry or physics.
