Belgian researcher Peter Dedecker has won the first prize in the DSM Science &
Technology Awards (North) 2009. An international judging committee, chaired by
DSM Chief Technology Officer Dr Jos Put, selected Peter Dedecker, who received
his doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) for his PhD
thesis entitled ’The Photophysics of the Photoswitchable Fluorescent Protein
Dronpa and its Applications in Diffraction-unlimited Fluorescence Microscopy’.
Dr Dedecker has succeeded in developing new high-resolution fluorescence
microscopy imaging techniques which allow the resolution of details much
smaller than the wavelength of light. For many decades this was considered to
be impossible. The new techniques open up new possibilities for fluorescence
microscopy with a diffraction-unlimited resolution, with comparatively
'gentle' experimental procedures suitable for biological samples. The research
will provide the basis for fundamental insight into the way molecules work in
a cell, thus enhancing our understanding of how viruses work or, for example,
how drug delivery systems could be optimized. Peter Dedecker was presented
with the award by Mr Jan Zuidam, deputy chairman of DSM’s Managing Board. As
the winner of the first prize he will also receive a cash prize of EUR 10,000.
The winner of the second prize, Wim Noorduin of Radboud University Nijmegen
(Netherlands), will receive a cash prize of EUR 5,000, and the winner of the
third prize, Anne Köhnen of the University of Cologne (Germany), will receive
a cash prize of EUR 2,500. The other six finalists will each receive a cash
prize of EUR 1,250.
