Introducing the Impact Award recipients

Erik Sistermans, professor of Human Genetics at Amsterdam UMC receives the Impact Award for the further development and application of the NIPT (Non-Invasive Prenatal Test). The NIPT blood test offers pregnant women a more reliable and safer alternative for early detection of chromosomal abnormalities in the foetus than before.

Joyeeta Gupta, professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam, focuses her research on climate justice, environmental management and sustainable development. Gupta’s mission is to make consumers and producers aware of their emissions and their responsibility to others who suffer globally.

Tessa Roseboom, professor of Early Development & Health and Future Generations Commissioner at Amsterdam UMC is doing long-term research on the effects of the 1944-1945 Hunger Winter. She showed that the environment in which people develop from a single fertilized egg into a complete human being is the foundation.

A special Impact Award in the context of ‘Amsterdam 750 years’ is for health scientist Jaap Seidell of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He set up the Health Sciences program at VU University twenty years ago. His research focused on nutrition, health and prevention and care for obesity and type 2 diabetes in the Netherlands. Information and prevention are essential. Seidell has devoted his entire career to this, with numerous Amsterdam programs, but also nationwide.