Harris Kaplan receives first Mattias Lauwers Award

At the end of the 13th VBC PhD-Symposium “Communication”, the first "Mattias Lauwers Award” was presented to Harris Kaplan, a doctoral student in Manuel Zimmer’s lab at the IMP. The award has been installed by the IMP and the parents of Mattias Lauwers, a bright young PhD-student of the Keays Lab who passed away last year. The award acknowledges the best student Monday seminar of the past year. It reflects the ambitious attitude of Mattias who took great pride in his seminars and always aimed to deliver the best performance. His talks were informative and accessible and he was always prepared to answer every conceivable question.

Harris was among a number of candidates who had been nominated by the PhD-students of the VBC. He was chosen to receive the award by a jury consisting of faculty members. The prize money and certificate were presented by Mattias’ mother and father who had travelled to the IMP from Belgium. "Mattias was a very good friend of mine, so this is a particularly meaningful award for me!” says Harris.