NVHG Awards

The Dutch Society of Human Genetics honours excellence in the field through a variety of award programs. From prestigious lifetime achievement awards for outstanding science in the field of genetics, to supporting the next generation of scientists, the NVHG promotes the work of its members across the span of their career.

The NVHG is committed to improving diversity and equality and encourages nominations and applications of outstanding scientists who represent that breadth of background, gender and experience.

Galjaard Award

Life-time achievement award for contribution to medical genetics. Previous winners are:

2022: Cisca Wijmenga

2020: Han Brunner

2018: Nine Knoers

2016: Jan Hoeijmakers

2014: Gert-Jan van Ommen

2012: Gert Matthijs


Lodewijk Sandkuijl Award

Excellence in statistical and/or complex genetics. Previous winners are:

2021: Michel Nivard: Genetics delivers high precision science & medicine; can we also deliver unbiased science & medicine?

2019: Daniëlle Posthuma: From GWAS to Function

2017: Brenda Penninx: Genetics & psychiatry: how 1+1 can be 3

2013: Cock van Duijn: From Genomics to Application

2011: Gerard te Meerman: Coalescence to common ancestors: a concept with applications to haplotype sharing and resequencing analysis

2009: Paul de Bakker: What genome-wide association studies have taught us about human disease

Young Investigator Award

Catalyst award for early-career scientists. Previous winners are:

2022: Mark Bakker

We are pleased to announce that Mark Bakker has been elected for the Young Investigator Award 2022. He successfully defended his thesis entitled “Genetics of intracranial aneurysms and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” cum Laude at University of Utrecht.

For his research on these two neurological conditions he applied broad spectrum of state of the art techniques like linkage and sequencing analysis, GWAS, and multidimensional genomic risk scores, to identify both common and rare genetic variants. The results of his studies on these complex genetic disorders will have important consequences for future patients and society.

2021: Najim Lahrouchi

At the online edition of the annual meeting, the NVHG presented the 2021 ‘Young Investigator Award’ to Najim Lahrouchi for his PhD-thesis “Dissecting genetic risk in common and rare inherited disorders”

2020: Mubeen Khan

At the online edition of the annual meeting, the NVHG presented the 2020 ‘Young Investigator Award’ to Mubeen Khan for her PhD-thesis “Genomic and transcriptomic landscape of ABCA4 associated Stargardt disease”

2019: Marieke Klein

At the annual symposium at Veldhoven, the NVHG presented the 2019 ‘Young Investigator Award’ to Marieke Klein for her PhD-thesis “From gene to disorder in ADHD”

2018: Marc Jan Bonder

At the annual symposium at Papendal, the NVHG presented the 2018 ‘Young Investigator Award’ to Marc Jan Bonder for his PhD-thesis “The interplay between genetics, the microbiome, DNA-methylation & gene-expression”

2016: Laurent Francioli

At the annual symposium in Amsterdam, the NVHG presented the 2016 ‘Young Investigator Award’ to Laurent Francioli.

2014: Christian Gilissen

On October 3, at the annual symposium, the NVHG presented the 2014 ‘Young Investigator Award’ to Christian Gilissen.

2011: Heleen Arts

Heleen Arts, UMC St. Radboud (Nijmegen), won the NVHG Young Investigators Award 2011, presented at the 2-day NVHG spring symposium in Veldhoven.

2009: Lude Franke

Lude Franke, UMC Groningen (Groningen), won the NVHG Young Investigators Award 2009, presented at the 2-day NVHG spring symposium in Veldhoven.


Annual Award

Each year a price is awarded to the best oral presentation at the NVHG Conference.


Poster Award

Each year a price is awarded to the best poster presentation at the NVHG Conference.