French researcher Armelle Corpet has been awarded the first prize in the DSM Science & Technology Awards (South) 2011. An international judging committee, chaired by Dr Manfred Eggersdorfer, Senior Vice President Nutritional Science & Nutrition and Health Advocacy at DSM Nutritional Products, selected Dr Armelle Corpet, who obtained her doctorate from the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, France, for her PhD research in the field of epigenetics. Dr Corpet has tackled a key question in mammalian cell division and has investigated the role of human histone chaperones in the maintenance of genome integrity, which is important for long-term health. Besides the new insights it has generated, this research offers the promise of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for assessing human health and chronic diseases. As the winner of the first prize Dr Corpet will receive a cash prize of €10,000.
From left to right: Manfred Eggersdorfer, Armelle Corpet and Jos Put
Second prize (€5,000) went to Stefan Radl of Graz University of Technology (Austria) for his PhD research on theoretical and computational investigation of chemical reactors. Third prize (€2,500) was given to Antoine Diguet of Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris (France) for his PhD work on the photocontrol of genes, biological membranes, and micro- to macrofluidic systems. The other nine finalists will each receive a cash prize of €1,250.
The awards were presented by Dr Manfred Eggersdorfer and DSM Chief Technology Officer Dr Jos Put at a dedicated event held at Grand Hotel Victoria-Jungfrau in Interlaken (Switzerland) on June 21. At the event, Prof. Stefan Felder, Extraordinarius and Professor of Health Economics at the University of Basel (Switzerland), delivered a keynote lecture entitled “40% of GDP for Health in 2040”, in which he discussed the rising share of health care expenditure in GDP in modern societies.
The DSM Science & Technology Awards (South) are awarded for outstanding PhD research conducted by doctoral students from Switzerland, Austria, Southern Germany and France, and form part of the DSM Innovation Awards Program. With this awards program, DSM shows its commitment to promoting innovative research, and underlines the importance of interaction between fundamental academic research and application-oriented industrial research.
