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SBE PhD candidate awarded 2012 Philips Mathematics Prize

Ruben van der Zwaan, a PhD candidate from the School of Business and Economics (SBE) at Maastricht University, was awarded the Philips Mathematics Prize for PhD Students. The prize was presented during the 2012 Dutch Mathematics Conference held on 12 April at the TU Eindhoven.

Twelve PhD candidates from twelve Dutch mathematics institutions competed for the prize this year. Van der Zwaan won for his lecture entitled ‘Intentions Matter’ about optimising the organisation of search engine results. The award consisted of a challenge trophy and cash prize.

All lectures were aimed at an audience with a general understanding of mathematics. An important award criterion was that the lectures could not exceed 12 minutes in length and must be easily understandable for non-specialists.