Stichting Ammodo, For arts, architecture and science

Ewout Frankema studies the historical roots of global inequality between the poor and the rich. This inequality grew dramatically between 1750 and 1990, and since then it has hardly reduced at all. In his integrated historical approach, he combines research into the ecological and geographical conditions in which rural societies develop with the economic, political and social relations which are shaped by mankind.

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Teun Bousema unravels the life cycle of Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite carried by mosquitoes that causes malaria. He is particularly interested in how a parasite from an infected human is then reintroduced to a new mosquito, and it was Bousema who discovered, among other things, that some people have an immune reaction that prevents this step from happening.

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Toby Kiers is interested in the interaction between plants and micro-organisms in the soil. An active trade in nutrients takes place between roots and fungi which can be described using economic theory that is actually meant for human markets. Her original approach provides new insights into the evolution of societies in the natural world.

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Ammodo and the KNAW both attach importance to wholly unfettered fundamental scientific research. Ammodo and the KNAW have joined forces to give extra impetus to this type of research at the present time. In 2015 the Ammodo KNAW Award is established, whereby every two years eight laureates are each awarded a cash prize of 300,000 euros. This amount may be spent by the laureate at his/her discretion on a fundamental scientific research project.

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Through studying 18th-century library sales catalogues, Alicia Montoya discovered that at a time when the Enlightenment changed thinking in Europe, religious books were still the biggest sellers. She questions what the impact of the philosophical transformation was amongst the wider population, outside the small circle of the intellectual elite. Has the hegemony of knowledge and reason been overstated? Alicia Montoya is Humanities laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Eva van Rooij was the first person to discover that microRNA molecules, components of living cells which have only recently been discovered, play a role in heart diseases. She is now investigating other molecular mechanisms that affect our cardiac cells. Is it possible to influence these so as to limit damage to such cells or even reverse it? Eva van Rooij is a Biomedical Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Thijn Brummelkamp is an energetic, critical and entrepreneurial scientist researching the function of each of the approximately 25,000 genes in the human body. He began by developing a way to turn off each of these genes one by one. Then he invented an even smarter method to do the same with a number of genes at the same time. Thijn Brummelkamp is a Biomedical laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2015.

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Stephanie Wehner is working on a fundamental challenge: how entanglement can be created over long distances in order to then make a quantum internet possible. Entanglement is a central concept in quantum mechanics, enabling safe communication and super-fast coordination. She now wants to realise this in the planned quantum network around Delft.

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Nadine Akkerman has described in unprecedented detail the letter correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, a distant ancestor of Queen Elizabeth. With her innovative research methods, such as the use of 3D X-ray scanners to read unopened letters, she is a forerunner in discovering the role of women in the politics and espionage of the seventeenth century.

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Jeroen Geurts was a pioneer in tracking difficult to detect abnormalities in the brains of MS patients. In the course of this work he came up with a new theory about the cause of MS, one which fundamentally differs from the theory that most of his colleagues have adhered to for many years. Jeroen Geurts is a Biomedical Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Guido van der Werf researches the amount of greenhouse gases that are entering the atmosphere because of the burning of forests, grasslands and peat bogs. With the help of models, satellite photos and drones he charts the contributions of burning, deforestation and the expansion of agricultural land on the greenhouse effect. Guido is a Natural Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Why are we so bad at describing what we smell? Why do we have words for colours but not for scents? Have we lost that capability in evolution? Or is it due to our upbringing? Asifa Majid undertakes innovative fieldwork among various cultures and peoples to find new answers to questions about connections between brains, language and culture. Asifa Majid is a Humanities laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2015.

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Eveline Crone discovered that not every part of the human brain develops at the same time. In puberty brain centers determining emotions develop more quickly than those which control rational decision making. This helps explain unrestrained, irresponsible and risky adolescent behaviour. How does the adolescent brain use this turbulent phase to learn to take creative but balanced decisions? Eveline Crone is a Social Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Under a thin hard crust planet Earth is a sphere within which liquid rock slowly flows around. But inside the flowing mass a hard globe has been discovered. It was suspected that such a thing existed but the evidence for it was only delivered when Arwen Deuss succeeded in picking up and analysing weak but characteristic seismic waves. Arwen Deuss is a Natural Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2015.

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Lenneke Alink takes the understanding of child maltreatment to a higher level with high-quality experimental research. She has a broad interest in the subject looking at both the role of chaos in the household, but also at that of the stress system in cases of abuse and neglect. Her work maps out the causes and consequences of this horrific problem – an important step towards solving it.

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Birte Forstmann works at the intersection between our behaviour on the one hand and the anatomy of our brains on the other. How do they relate to each other? And what mechanisms in the brain make it possible for a person to respond to his or her environment? In her research she focuses mainly on the subcortex, a large structure in the middle of the brain that plays a major role in Parkinson’s disease.

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Appy Sluijs discovered that 56 million years ago, due to a chain-reaction in the oceans and the atmosphere, there was a rise in the greenhouse effect on the Earth. Palm trees grew at the poles and the Arctic Ocean became as warm as a subtropical swimming pool. Could something similar happen again? Appy Sluijs is a Natural Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Roshan Cools discovered that medicines which affect our brains do not always have the same effect: a substance that increases concentration in a person’s brain, can actually reduce the flexibility of that brain. For someone else the effects may be the opposite. Cools is searching for the brain mechanisms behind something that has preoccupied philosophers throughout the ages: human will power. Roshan Cools is a Social Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Olivier Hekster revisits the labelling of Roman Emperors such as Nero, Caligula and Commodus as ‘mad’ by looking at their use of the mass-media of antiquity: effigies on coins, statues and inscriptions on buildings. How did these Emperors attempt to establish their power over their vast empire using such communications? Olivier Hekster is a Humanities laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

In the legendary science fiction film Star Trek Captain Kirk is teleported home from far away in the universe by his chief engineer “Scotty”. Physicists, including Ronald Hanson, have been trying to do something vaguely similar. “Quantum teleportation,” is an experiment by which information is transferred without the use of sound, light or any other form of energy. Ronald Hanson is a Natural Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2015.

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Which nerves connect our senses with our cerebral cortex? How do our brains become conscious of sensory stimuli? And how does that ultimately result in an understanding of what is happening around us? These are the kind of questions that Serge Dumoulin is engaged in, and which put him on the trail of a congenital abacus in our brain. Serge Dumoulin is a Social Sciences laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2015.

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