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Thesis Award for four excellent Wageningen students
Four Wageningen University & Research students have received a UFW-KLV Thesis Award from the University Fund Wageningen. During the online ceremony, Jasper Roebroek was awarded the overall Thesis Award for his MSc thesis. The other winners of this year's Thesis Award are Roman Meier, Dries Hulst and Javier F. Reynoso Lobo.
The Thesis Award is an annual prize and is intended for WUR students who have written an excellent thesis or publication in the master phase of their studies.
Winning thesis
Jasper Roebroek wrote his winning thesis 'Global distribution of hydrologic controls on forest growth' under the supervision of Ryan Teuling, Lieke Melsen and Remko Uijlenhoet, for the Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management chair group. In his thesis, Roebroek notes that in mapping local water processes, landscape and climate are more crucial than expected.
The jury was impressed by the quality and impact of Jasper's work, as well as the autonomy with which he worked and his holistic approach. One of the judges noted that because of Jasper's impressive work, textbooks and manuals would have to be rewritten.
Plastic waste and rivers
Jasper Roebroek is currently completing his master's internship at the ECMWF (European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) in England, where he focusses on whether and how much plastic waste can be transported in case of river flooding. As the overall winner, he received €1000. The other three domain winners each received €500. Roebroek will receive a bronze sculpture of Sjoerd Buisman's 'Wageningen tree'.
Online award ceremony
This year, the award ceremony was held online due to the corona crisis and was attended by the jury members, the winners, supervisors and chair holders and the family and friends of the four winners. Jury chair this year was prof. Dr ir. Tiny van Boekel.
The other winners and their thesis subjects were:
Agrotechnology & Food Sciences
Javier F. Reynoso Lobo, Biotechnology
Title thesis: DARK PHOTOSYNTHESIS: Hydrogen and far-red light-based growth of a Spirulina platensis enriched microbiome
Supervisor: David Strik; chair holder: Cees Buisman
Social Sciences
Roman Meier, International Development Studies
Title thesis: Identity Negotiation of Indigenous Peoples in the Process of Rural-Urban Migration
Supervisor: Bram Jansen; chair holder: Bram Buscher
Life Sciences
Dries Hulst, Animal Sciences
Title thesis: Genetic epidemiological analysis of endemic diseases
Supervisor: Piter Bijma, Mart de Jong; chair holder: Martien A.M. Groenen