Jelgersma Award

Since 2016, the KNGMG has annually awarded the Jelgersma Award for the best Earth Science bachelor’s thesis in the Netherlands. The Jelgersma Prize has been set up in order to emphasize the importance of this thesis as the first scientific piece that students deliver, with the secondary aim to further raise the level of the theses. The prize is named after Dr. Saskia (Kiek) Jelgersma (1929-2012). We hope that her independent way of thinking and acting and her excellent work serves as an example to undergraduate students. More background on her can be found in this article.

The prize consists of a certificate, an amount of 750 euros and one year’s membership of the KNGMG. All nominees will receive a year’s membership as a gift. The Jelgersma Prize is supported by Deltares.

The submitted theses are assessed by an independent jury on research design, content, logic, style, layout and readability.

A thesis (in Dutch or English) must be submitted digitally (as a Word or PDF file) to the KNGMG secretariat. The submission must also include a letter stating how much time (in reality, not in ECs) was spent on the thesis and the number of ECs obtained with the thesis. The letter must be co-signed by the thesis supervisor. Please also include the contact details of the sender

Submissions for the 2022-2023 academic year can be submitted until November 1, 2023. The jury consists of:

  • Dr. Romée Kars (TNO), voorzitter
  • Dr. Menno Hofstra (RVO)
  • Dr. Don van den Biggelaar (IDDS)
  • Dr. Maayke Koevoets (TNO)
  • Dr. Jan Peeters (Nanyang Technological University | Singapore)

Winners of the Jelgersma Award

2016 — Twee winnaars: Evalien van der Valk (VU): “The processes behind the chemical variations of the Lies tuff cone, Nisyros, Greece” en Sander Molendijk (UU): “Nature and Implications of igneous rock in the Kuruman Formation from Griqualand West Basin, South Africa“
2017 — Falco van Bakel (VU): “Climate reconstruction of southern France based on a speleothem from Montagne Noire“
2018 — Viktoria Trautner (VU); “Effect of oxygen fugacity on siderophile and chalcophile trace element partitioning between Fe-S – Se-Si alloys and silicate melts”
2019 — Marije Vos (VU); “Reconstruction of the paleo-connection between the Upper Yangtze River and the Red River”
2020 — Eise Nota (UU); “Verification of debris flow velocity studies using UAV imagery. Comparison of velocities, superelevation and cross-section shapes in channel bends of the Illgraben, Switzerland with theoretical concepts and laboratory experiments”
2021 — Marieke Cuperus (UU); “

 Jelgersma award regulations

  1. The Royal Dutch Geological Mining Society (KNGMG) can annually award the Jelgersma Prize to encourage graduating students from a Bachelor’s degree program in Earth Sciences to conduct innovative and thorough research and to provide solid reporting.
  2. The prize is awarded to the author or authors of the best-assessed earth science Bachelor’s thesis of that year by an external jury. Every year, KNGMG will publish the upcoming closing date for submissions on its website.
  3. The jury of the Jelgersma Prize consists of a varied group of earth scientists, from academia, business, semi-governmental or government. Jury members are appointed by the KNGMG board. Jury members preferably have a doctoral degree or have a strong affinity with research.
  4. In addition to a sum of money, the winner will receive a year’s membership of the KNGMG and an invitation to publish in The Netherlands Journal of Geosciences or the Geo.Brief.
  5. Each application must be submitted by the author(s) of the thesis or by the direct supervisor of the research. The jury reserves the right to request further information about the submitted work from the direct research supervisor.
  6. The thesis (in Dutch or English) must be submitted digitally (as a PDF file) to the KNGMG secretariat. The submission must include a brief introduction from the thesis supervisor (also as a PDF file), correspondence contact details and e-mail addresses of the supervisor and author. The thesis supervisor must indicate the grade achieved in the covering letter.
  7. There is a lower limit of an assessment of 8.5 on a scale of 10 achieved at your own institution for the thesis. The jury will not take the score into account during further assessment.
  8. Theses must have been completed at a Dutch institution for scientific education and have a clear earth scientific character. A thesis may have a fundamental, applied or interdisciplinary character.
  9. For a fundamental subject, originality and hypothesis formation are the most important criteria.
  10. For an applied subject, the jury mainly looks at the innovative and problem-solving character.
  11. For topics based on an interdisciplinary approach, particular attention is paid to the innovative ideas formulated that are the result of this approach.
  12. Theses must include a standard structure with title page, table of contents, summary, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, references, appendices, etc. Theses in the form of a manuscript for publication are not accepted.
  13. The award ceremony will take place at a meeting of the KNGMG or one of its circles, or at an earth science event, in consultation between the jury, the KNGMG board and the prize winner.

Top picture © Earthfocus by Jeroen Peters copyright