Considerans
Michelle van der Helm, TU Delft
Enzyme reactions in monolithic microreactors
The jury Golden Master Award of the KNCV has nominated the thesis of Michelle van der Helm, entitled “Enzyme reactions in monolithic microreactors”, for the Golden Master Award 2017.
In her thesis Michelle van der Helm describes in an extensive way the comprehensive research that she performed under supervision of Prof. Dr. Ulf Hanefeld and MSc. H. Busch in the Section Biocatalysis at the Department of Biotechnology of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the Delft University of Technology.
The aim of her research is to develop a continuous production system for chiral cyanohydrins based on enzyme immobilization on functionalized mesoporous silicate carrier combined with a continuous microreactor flow system. Using new technologies, a major improvement in conversion yields and enantioselectivity was obtained.
As a talented biotechnologist and chemical engineer, Michelle has combined multiple technologies and thereby contributed to strengthening the interface between chemistry, life sciences and engineering. To execute her work, she collected all relevant literature and knowledge. She has been using a multitude of technologies to optimize the performance of enzyme immobilization and even tested the immobilized enzymes at the bioreactor facilities from the Silesian University of Technology in Poland.
Michelle compiled her results in a very high-quality master thesis with minimal help of her supervisors. The thesis is very pleasant to read as it is well-structured and provides for extensive background information of the research. The results will be published in a scientific journal and Michelle has presented her work at a scientific conference.
The combination of the very high level of the performed work, the quality of the thesis, and the multitude of chemical, biochemical and engineering technologies used, has convinced the committee to nominate the thesis of Michelle van der Helm as the winner of the Golden Master Award 2017.
The other two prizes were awarded to:
Jeroen Dobbelaar - TU Eindhoven
A broadly applicable red dye doped luminescent solar concentrator photo microreactor
Ruben Hamans - TU Eindhoven
Super-resolution mapping of plasmonic hot electrons
The jury consisted of KNCV members in the broad range of chemistry:
| Naam | Vakgebeid/Werkveld |
| Gino van Strijdonck | Sectie Organische Chemie |
| Denise Jacobs | Sectie NBV |
| Ilja Voets | Sectie Nanostructures and Self Assembly |
| Michel Eppink | Sectie NBV, sectie NVBMB |
| Laura Heitman | Sectie Farmacochemie |
| Willie Peijnenburg | Sectie Milieuchemie |
| Riet Hilhorst | KNCV Bestuur |
