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The Descartes Colloquium will be the site of the Prize award ceremony of the Pieter van Foreest Prize. The prize explicitly aims at stimulating young academic talent in the medical humanities.

The three nominees are:

Annemarijn Douwes is project manager at the Julius Center of the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and manages multiple scientific projects funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) (, , and ). She is a graduate of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ with a bachelor’s degree (honors) in pharmaceutical sciences and a master’s degree (honors) in history and philosophy of science. During her Master’s, Annemarijn has worked as book review assistant at Isis and she was actively involved in the local organisation of the History of Science Society’s annual meeting 2019, which took place in Utrecht. In September 2019, she won Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ’s Award for Exceptional Extracurricular Achievements together with the other members of Studying Without Limitations, a platform helping students with a disability. For her master thesis, Annemarijn has studied . A mixed methods approach was adopted to study these shops from the customer’s perspective, using textual and visual information from a wide range of sources such as literary works, socio-demographic data, and notarial deeds. Moreover, the spread of apothecary shops over Amsterdam was visualised and analysed for the first time, which provided new insights concerning the stribution pattern, business, and clientele of these shops.

Jolien Gijbels is a doctoral researcher attached to the Cultural History since 1750 Research Group at the KU Leuven. She did an MA in Heritage studies, ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam, (Cum Laude) and a MA in History at the KU Leuven (Magna cum Laude). Her doctoral research is part of the interdisciplinary research project It examines the complex and ideologically charged debates within the medical domain of obstetrics and how physicians tried to reach compromises on issues such as intrauterine baptism and medical abortion. By studying ideological debates between Catholic and liberal doctors, Jolien aims to shed light on the relation between medicine and Catholicism in 19th-century Belgium. In the past years she published several peer-reviewed articles and blog posts on medicine and religion, including topics such as the disposal of dissected human remains, postmortem caesarean sections and obstetric dilemmas in nineteenth-century Belgium. Since 2017, She is also the editor of .

Sadaf Soloukey (MSc/MA) is a MD/PhD-Candidate in the departments of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery at the Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. Sadaf's research interests lie in applied neuro-technology and its phenomenological implications. In particular, Sadaf focusses on the process of embodiment in patients with spinal cord injury receiving neuronal implants. After finishing high school summa cum Laude, Sadaf started her medical training at the Erasmus ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ in Rotterdam. In parallel to her medical BSc, Sadaf started a BA in Philosophy of Medicine. During her bachelor's studies, Sadaf participated in two honours programmes and was active in multiple boards, including  the Dutch and International Philosophy Olympiad (IPO), culminating in the organization of IPO 2017 in Rotterdam, hosting >200 philosophers. After finishing her BSc in Medicine (valedictorian) and her BA in Philosophy (cum Laude), Sadaf continued to complete three master's degrees in a two-year time period: a Research Master in Neuroscience, a MSc in Health Economics, Policy & Law, and a MA in Philosophy (cum Laude). She was awarded the prof. H.W. Lambers Prize upon completion. Sadaf aims to continue conducting research which is neuroscientifically sound, technologically fueled and clinically relevant, while lways identifying the phenomenological implications of neuro-technological interventions in the clinical domain.

The winner will be announced during the colloquium. All three nominations will give a 15 minute talk during the colloquium.

Our host will be Professor Toine Pieters, Chair Pieter van Foreest Prize.

Please join us for this festive occasion!