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Emma Hinderink wins WURCS prize for best PhD thesis in Chemistry
Last Friday, Emma Hinderink, former PhD of FPE, was presented with the first prize for her PhD thesis by prof. Dolf Weijers, and dr. Miriam Kabel of the WURCS committee that promotes chemistry research in the broadest sense within Wageningen University, and you can see a very surprised Emma receiving the prize in the picture.
Dr. Hinderink’s work deals with fundamental issues that come up in the field of oil-in-water emulsions, which are central components in e.g. many foods. For the stabilisation of such emulsions typically dairy proteins are used, but for both environmental and societal reasons there is a drive towards the use of plant-based proteins. This replacement is not as trivial as it seems, due to the difference in structures of such proteins, and therefore poses a wide range of questions.
Novel microfluidics-based methods
Dr. Hinderink has tackled these questions in a highly original manner, by the development of novel microfluidics-based methods that can be used in combination with a wide range of other characterisations. As a result, she was able to obtain information on such mixed emulsifiers on an unprecedented range of length and timescales, which brings this field forward significantly. Her research, which fits excellently in the scope of Wageningen University, has been published in 7 first-author papers, and has already started to attract significant attention, further substantiating the importance of her work.
We are very proud of Emma, and congratulate her on this achievement!