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Statement, Rules and Guidelines for the Pieter Walstra Award

Statement, Rules and Guidelines for the Pieter Walstra Award

 

1.      Background

The Pieter Walstra Award has been installed in 2011 by the Dutch Dairy Association (NZO) to honour the unique contribution of Prof. dr. Pieter Walstra to the area of dairy science and technology. His contribution existed of fundamental scientific knowledge that was inspired by practical problems and directed towards practical applications. This knowledge has substantially contributed to the development of the Dutch dairy industry. He also made a major contribution in educating many students in this field. Many of his graduates found a position in the field of dairy research, organisations and industry.

2.      Purpose of the award

 The purpose of the award is to stimulate excellent scientific publications in the field of dairy science and technology, in the spirit of Pieter Walstra’s work: critical, innovative, inspired by and directed towards practical problems. The award should be spent preferably on dissemination of the awarded work at congresses and seminars, on webinars, on further elaboration of the awarded work, or similar purposes.

3.      Description of the Award

The Pieter Walstra Award is presented every two years. The Award will be given to a person who has written an outstanding scientific publication related to dairy science in a broad sense, covering one of the disciplines of primary production, milk genomics, processing, nutrition, marketing, or combinations thereof. The publication can be a paper in a refereed scientific journal or it can be a PhD thesis. The Award consists of a price of €3000 and a certificate. The Award will be handed over during the spring meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Dairy Science (Genootschap ter Bevordering van de Melkkunde), held in the Netherlands around March/April every odd year. The Award winner will be asked to give a short presentation of his/her work during this meeting and is also asked to report later on to the Board of the Advancement of Dairy Science and the NZO how the Award is spent.

4.      Criteria

The publication should not be older than two years and needs to have been published, either in a refereed scientific journal, or as a PhD thesis. 
The publication needs to be an outstanding piece of work, to be judged by the jury mentioned below. The research area can be of a fundamental nature or can be more applied, directed towards practical solutions. The prime criterion is that the work has significantly advanced knowledge in relation to dairy science and technology. This can be taken in a broad sense over the whole of the dairy chain, i.e., from breeding up to nutrition and everything in between, as explained under 3. It does not necessarily has to be research on milk per se, as long as it can be applied to milk and milk products.

5.      Application

Nominations should be in English and submitted electronically to the chairman of the jury, Prof. dr. Thom Huppertz (Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.). A person can only submit a specific publication once. There is no geographic limitation. Young scientists are especially encouraged to submit. Apart from the publication or thesis, a CV should be included with a list of publications. Nominations will be solicited and have to reach the jury before 31 December 2023. The spring meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Dairy Science will be held on 11 April 2024. Individuals may also bring a publication from someone else to the attention of the Jury.

6.      Selection and notification

The jury will evaluate the submissions and will apply the following criteria:

- Scientific content and contribution to the scientific field
- Originality and innovative aspects
- Contribution to the advancement of dairy science and technology
- Valorisation and application possibilities for dairy science and technology

Nominees will be notified of the decision of the jury ultimately one month before the spring meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Dairy Science.

7.      Jury

- Prof. dr. Thom Huppertz (Wageningen University & Research)
- Dr. Mohèb Elwakiel (Dutch Dairy Association)
- Prof. dr. Ingeborg Haagsma-Boels (HAS Green Academy, also representing the board of the Society for the Advancement of Dairy Science)

The jury has the freedom to seek external advice and its final judgement is not open for discussion.