​Four TU Delft professors nominated for VIVA400 Award

The VIVA400 award is comprised of 400 women who are nominated for their outstanding work in their field. They must have either recently “won an award for their research, discovered a gap in the market or who dare to stick their neck out in the pursuit of a better world; women who achieve their goal on their own terms, whilst inspiring those around them” according to the VIVA400 website.

There are eight winners, one in each of the eight categories: emerging talent (aanstormend talent), business (business), arts and literature (creatief), sustainability (eco), intelligence (knappe koppen), fashion (mode), online (online) and athletic (stoer.)

Neelke Doorn, Assistant Professor of Ethics and Water Governance, Cynthia Liem, Assistant Professor Multimedia Computing Group and Elisa Giaccardi, Professor of Interactive Media Design were nominated under the theme of knappe koppen. Birna van Riemsdijk was nominated under the category online. Knappe koppen is intended to recognise female researchers who have had a recent breakthrough whilst online comprises those who are experts in and have demonstrated a large presence on online media.

Doorn is Assistant Professor Ethics and Water Governance in the Department of Philosophy and was a 2013 recipient of the Veni grant for her project titled ‘The ethics of flood risk management’. She is currently completing a post graduate degree in law. Assistant Professor Liem is both a trained classical pianist, having studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and computer scientist, undertaking her PhD studies as part of the Multimedia Computing Group at TU Delft.

Professor Giaccardi, one of the recipients of the TU Delft Technology Fellowship for top female scientists, specialises in interaction design and human-computer interaction. She brings together her background in humanities, digital media and interactive design. Birna van Riemsdijk, Assistant Professor for the department of Intelligent Systems in EEMCS, was a 2014 recipient of the NWO funded Vidi grant for €80,000 for furthering her work in Computational Reasoning for Socially Adaptive Electronic Partners.

The eight winners were announced on November 18, 2014 as part of the VIVA400 Awards ceremony held at The College Hotel in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, none of the TU Delft nominees received an award this year.

Reflecting the sentiments of all four nominees, Liem said that irrespective of whether she won the award or not “it was an honour to be nominated amongst such illustrious colleagues and help further bring female scientists into the limelight.”