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106th WUR Dies Natalis: microbiomes, Supervisor of the Year and transfer of rectorship
WUR was all about microbiomes, the Research Awards and the transferral of the rectorship from Arthur Mol to Carolien Kroeze on its 106th anniversary. Kroeze: ‘I am honoured to have been appointed the next Rector Magnificus of Wageningen University & Research. I have always been proud of our organisation. Proud of our education, research and the impact we make on healthy food and a healthy living environment.’
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Watch all videos and photos on the page of the Dies Natalis 2024.
Wageningen Microbiome Center
The theme of this 106th Dies Natalis was From Globe to Gut: Unravelling the Microbiome. There is quite some microbiology research going on in Wageningen. Some twenty different research groups are involved in research into microbiomes, which are communities of bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi and micro-algae.
The research conducted by the various Wageningen University & Research groups and partnerships, such as UNLOCK, are merged in the new Wageningen Microbiome Center (WMC), which will move into its very own building on Wageningen Campus by the end of 2025/start of 2026. Outgoing Rector Magnificus Arthur Mol stated that the WMC holds a unique position: it includes human health, climate, biodiversity, animal and plant health, and a circular economy.
The fascinating world of microbiomes
Professor Nicole Dubilier, director of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, discussed microbial communication and the evolution of symbiosis between micro-organisms and marine species in her keynote address.
Three young scientists went on to discuss microbiomes from the perspective of their fields of expertise. PhD student Alejandro Berlinches de Gea discussed microbes in the soil, which hunt, feed and transfer nutrients to plants.
Bio-informatician Hannah Augustijn develops software to accelerate the search for undiscovered genes and substances in bacteria that may be used to develop medicines. She made a new tool to identify the on and off switches in bacterial genetic codes.
Athanasia Ioannou, who is also working on her PhD research, delivered a presentation on how breastmilk contributes to the development of bacterial communities in the infant intestine. She constructed synthetic gut bacteria communities to learn more about this topic.
Research Awards: four categories
As per tradition, the Research Award is part of the Dies Natalis. This year, however, the award was not limited to the “best scientific publication”; the categories ‘Team effort of the year’, ‘Transdisciplinary research of the year’ and ‘Supervisor of the year’.
Associate Professor of Health & Society Lenneke Vaandrager received the award for Supervisor of the Year. The award for Research Paper of the Year was presented to Rob de Haas, who specialises in computational protein design. Team Positive Animal Welfare, PAW, was given the award for Team Effort of the Year for their European proposal for animal welfare. Finally, FermFood, which focuses on the use of traditional fermented food in Africa to increase food security, received the Transdisciplinary Research of the Year Award.
The winners:
- Research Paper of the Year: Rob de Haas
- Team effort of the year: PAW Team
- Transdisciplinary research of the year: FermFood
- Supervisor of the year: Lenneke Vaandrager
First female Rector Magnificus at WUR
During his farewell as Rector Magnificus, Arthur Moll touched on the struggle that sometimes accompanies efforts for improvement and the societal changes of the past nine years, such as increasing polarisation.
Mol handed over the office of Rector to incoming Rector Carolien Kroeze, who underscored the importance of education in her acceptance speech. ‘I believe we often overlook the impact teaching has on the lives of young people, our students. We train the next generation of experts who will be the source of the change we need in order to achieve the societal transitions we seek.’
Executive Board President Sjoukje Heimovaara minced no words in thanking Mol for his commitment and welcomed Kroeze as WUR’s first female Rector, ‘123 years after enrolling the first female student, 72 years after the first female professor was appointed and ten years after the first female board president took office.’
Mayor Floor Vermeulen was present to thank Mol for his dedication on behalf of Wageningen municipality. He announced that the outgoing Rector Magnificus will receive the city’s City of Life Sciences Award, which includes a chestnut tree to be planted in the Torck Park in Wageningen and a certificate.
Photo's: Cynthia van Dijke, Guy Ackermans. Moving images: Wim van Egmond.