Prof Nanne de Vries has been associated with UM since 2000. Besides his professorship and being chair of the department of Health Promotion, he was vice-dean of the FHML faculty for more than nine years.

The Tans Medal warmly belongs to Nanne de Vries because of the great contribution he has made to the development and growth of the faculty and university in a very broad field. And above all to the development of the people within those institutes. Exemplary for this are his efforts in further shaping the HR policy for the university and faculty, the UM professors' fund and the UM dissertation prize, the latter two both established to appreciate and stimulate academic talent and perseverance.

Over the past decades, Nanne de Vries has participated in programmes and projects for UM that were often outside his own field, but where his energy and talent were of great value. ‘Through a combination of intellect, perseverance and empathy, Nanne set not only himself, but also others, and thus the entire UM in motion’, UM president Rianne Letschert concluded when presenting the Tans Medal.