Four Royal Honours at TU Delft

Marileen Dogterom, Professor of Bionanosciences at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (AS) and president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), was made a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion in the municipality of Woerden. Marileen Dogterom is an internationally acclaimed researcher in biomolecular and cellular physics. She leads the Dutch Consortium BaSyC (Building a Synthetic Cell) and is one of the initiators of the European Synthetic Cell Initiative, where researchers are trying to understand the processes of life by building an artificial cell. Her research focuses on the cytoskeleton: the system of microtubules that gives living cells their shape and strength, but which also plays an important role during cell division. In pioneering experiments late last century, Dogterom was the first to measure the push and pull forces exerted by these microtubules. She is one of the pioneers who made Dutch research in biophysics, bionanoscience and synthetic biology renowned worldwide. The exceptional quality of her research is highlighted, among other things, by the award in 2013 of an ERC Synergy Grant, one of the largest European research grants, and the Spinoza Prize, the highest award in Dutch science, in 2018.