Friends, allow me to share with you the exciting news: The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences announced today that I am a recipient of the KNAW Early Career Award! What a fabulous way to celebrate the twelfth academic-year anniversary of my arrival in the Netherlands and Dutch academia, and to honor the mentors, colleagues, and friends who made this journey such a pleasure. You can read more about the award here.

The winners have been selected in the four Academy domains: humanities; behavioural sciences, social sciences and law; natural sciences and engineering; and medical, biomedical and health sciences. There are three winners in each domain. The KNAW Early Career Award consists of the sum of €15,000, made available from the Academy Fund. The winners are free to spend this sum on their research careers as they see fit. 

In addition, all winners receive the art object Extended Jewellery by Laura Klinkenberg (1992). It is a brass screw with a twist, representing the ‘twist’ needed in both research and art to come up with new ideas and symbolising the contrariness of research. Extended Jewellery won the art competition associated with the KNAW Early Career Award, with the artist receiving the €7,500 prize. Laura Klinkenberg studied jewellery design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and has her own company, Ritual Design.

The KNAW Early Career Awards will be presented on 15 February 2021.