Prizewinners of Maastricht University's 43rd Dies Natalis

2018 Wynand Wijnen Education Prize

Fabienne Crombach was this year's prizewinner. Fabienne started her career at Maastricht University as a facility manager at EDLAB in 2015. In that role, Fabienne was involved in the development, implementation and evaluation from the start, first as the ‘right hand’ of former PREMIUM Coordinator Ellen Bastiaens, and later as the coordinator herself. Fabienne also coordinates the two other excellence programmes Honours+ and MaRBLe at EDLAB. As a spin-off of PREMIUM she has also set up the Master Yourself student employability program. 'Fabienne clearly has a natural talent for organizing exciting educational events!', stated the jury's report.

The Wynand Wijnen Education Prize is presented annually as a tribute to Wynand Wijnen, a professor of didactics who passed away in 2012. In addition to considerable national achievements in the field of education reform, he helped lay the foundations of Problem-based Learning at Maastricht University.

2018 Dissertation Prize

Each year UM awards a prize for the best thesis that was defended in that calendar year. The faculty deans nominated five theses and the winner of the 2018 Dissertation Prize is Hortense Jongen, with her thesis entitled 'Combating Corruption the Soft Way: The Authority of Peer Reviews in the Global Fight against Graft.’  This dissertation examines the authority of evaluation mechanisms, known as peer reviews, in the global fight against corruption. The jury praised Jongen for her outstanding dissertation. ‘A bright academic future is ahead of her’, the jury stated.

Best master's theses

The master's students who achieved the highest marks for their final theses in 2018 were presented with the 2018 Student Award during the academic session. The winning master's students are:

Lea Andrée
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
Thesis title: “Instructive nanocoatings for bone regeneration”

Yannick Meyer
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
Thesis title: “Contrast enema vs. colonoscopy prior to temporary stoma reversal in rectal surgery; results of a national snapshot study"

Marika Madfors
Faculty of Law
Thesis title: “The Role of Law in Preventing the Risks of Superintelligence”

Merit Geldmacher
School of Business and Economics
Thesis title: “The Kaleidoscopic Game of Life”

Danial Florian Saef
School of Business and Economics
Thesis title: “The case of Düsseldorf Airport”

Lea Marie Smidt
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Thesis title: “Can Civil Society be Socially Engineered? The Influence of EU Democracy Aid on Civic Participation in Africa”

Carla Sophia Greubel
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Thesis title: “Recording the Past - Structuring the Present: Technology and the Sound of Everyday Life in Homes for the Elderly"

José Bonet Giner
Faculty of Sciences and Engineering
Thesis title: “Improvement of Tumor Phylogenetic Models: An ILP approach”

Anja Weigel
Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience
Thesis title: “Mindfulness and Interpersonal relations at work: The relationships of mindfulness and Active-Empathic Listening to Team-Member Exchange”