Radboud University Biomolecular Systems Researcher wins Mildred Dresselhaus Award

Dr. Anouk Rijs, researcher at the Molecular and biophysics group at Radboud University, has been awarded a Mildred Dresselhaus Award which includes a guest professorship. These awards are given each year by the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI) to two internationally outstanding female scientists. Rijs is awarded the junior ‘young star’ award.

Rijs receives the award for her successful work in physical chemistry specializing on the investigation of biomolecular systems like proteins. She aims to understand how the structure and local interactions of these systems lead to protein function. In Nijmegen, she uses infrared and terahertz radiation made by the FELIX laserlab to do this research. http://www.ru.nl/felix/

International role model

‘The position in Hamburg allows me to relate the work I have been doing, aimed to understand protein function and molecular recognition on the atomic and molecular scale, to the macromolecular structure’, according to Rijs. ‘I’ll be learning new experimental methods and discussing with established scientist in the field of structural biology, chemistry and molecular physics.’ Rijs plans to visit Hamburg one month in spring and three months in the fall of 2015. Dr. Melanie Schnell, member of CUI’s board of directors, says: “With the guest professorship we can bring international role models for female scientists to Hamburg.”

The program, to which Mildred Dresselhaus in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has given her name, provides excellent research conditions in order to allow successful women researchers to work within CUI and start new collaborations, to attract world leading researchers to Hamburg and to serve as a role model for young women in the physical sciences. Rijs will receive the prize and 10.000 euro prize money during the official new year’s reception of the CUI on January 15 2015.