Vladimir Vernadsky Medal 2007 to Jaap Sinninghe Damsté
31 October 2006
Another international award for NIOZ scientist
The section Biogeosciences of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) has awarded the prestigious Vernadsky Medal 2007 to Jaap Sinninghe Damsté. This scientist of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research NIOZ receives the medal for the extraordinary quality of his scientific work in the field of biogeochemistry. The Vernadsky Medal is the second international award for Sinninghe Damsté. Last year he already received the Treibs Medal in organic geochemistry from the American Geochemical Society.
Jaap Sinninghe Damsté (1959) gets the Vernadsky Medal for his scientific work on the development of molecular biomarkers. These can be used to decipher the interactions between the biosphere and the geosphere of our planet. Biomarkers are organic molecules from (remnants of) micro-organisms like bacteria and unicellular algae. The occurrence of certain species is often characteristic for the environment in which they flourished, because that environment had to meet the specific demands from these organisms. Sinninghe Damsté and his research group investigate current processes in our seas and oceans as well as processes that occurred in the past, sometimes more than a hundred million years ago. The characteristics of these ancient environments are usually reconstructed from the biomarker molecules occurring in sediment cores from the sea-bottom.
Spinozaprize winner
Sinninghe Damsté is currently the
head of the department Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology at NIOZ, the
oceanographic institute of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
(NWO). He is also a professor at Utrecht University and a member of the Darwin
Center for Biogeology. From NWO, the biogeochemist received the Spinoza Prize
in 2004. The Spinoza Prize is the highest scientific award for scientists in
The Netherlands. Last year Sinninghe Damsté also became a member of the Royal
Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
The Vernadsky Medal is named after the Russian-Oekraïnian geologist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945), who is regarded as the founding father of the modern biogeosciences. Sinninghe Damsté is the fourth scientist to receive this honorary award. He will receive the medal during the fourth general meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna from 15 - 20 April 2007.
More information about the Vernadski-medal can be found at: http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/awards/vladimir_ivanovich_vernadsky_overvie w.html
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More information:
- Prof. dr. ir. Jaap Sinninghe Damsté
- t: +31(0)222 369 550, damste@nioz.nl
- Dr. Jan Boon (communication and pr-officer NIOZ)
- t: +31 (0)222 369 466, boon@nioz.nl
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