Jury 2023

At the time of the festive Finale of the Amsterdam Science and Innovation Award 2023, a fun and dynamic event, the winners are to be selected! A professionally diverse and inspiring jury will judge the applications. We are happy to announce this year’s chair, Ruben Brave. For more on his inspiring biography please read on, and click on the links down below. We are also happy to announce Marie Louise Blankesteijn – professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ivana Išgum – Distinguished Professor in AI and Medical Imaging, Wouter Keij from the Innovatie Fonds Noord-Holland, Ilse Zaal former deputy for the Province of North Holland, Tom Brouwer – cardiologist in training and clinical epidemiologist, and there is one more jury member to be announced soon; please read more down below.

Ruben Brave (chair of the jury)

Ruben Brave (1974) is a Dutch internet pioneer, media professional and serial tech entrepreneur in media and telecommunication (TMT).

Ruben is also an investor and holds various board positions, such as the Social-Economic Council (SER, Diversity in Business), Open State Foundation, the Cultural Participation Fund of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,  the Dutch Review of Books Foundation and the joint master Entrepreneurship of the VU Amsterdam

Since 2004, Ruben has been the founder of the academic business incubator Entelligence for pre-seed financing, (valorisation) mentoring and coaching, in which start-ups of professors are kickstarted (spin-offs) in the sectors of media, ICT, health and education. At the SciLink Foundation, Ruben coaches academics in start-up initiation, upscaling, and networking.

Recently Ruben co-founded the Dutch New Narrative Lab Foundation (DNNL) with the mission to improve access to innovative entrepreneurship for all underrepresented groups in the Dutch startup scene. DNNL was created after Ruben conducted an extensive Exploration, on behalf of the Directorate of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, on how to increase diversity and inclusion in the Dutch Startup ecosystem; in doing so, he personally interviewed more than 350 stakeholders.

As part of the IXA-next valorisation programme for the City of Amsterdam, Ruben’s own entrepreneurial journey was covered under the title Ruben Brave ‘You are more than the color of your skin’. In 2021 he was elected by 500+ members as the first black President of the Dutch Chapter of Internet Society (ISOC NL). Photo by Pieter Bas Bouwman

Erika de Greef

Erika de Greef is currently director in the holding company of an internationally oriented high-tech family business in the agro food tech industry. She also holds various positions in advisory boards and supervisory boards in the sectors of (building) installations technology, medical equipment, chemistry, and robotics.

In her professional career Erika has lived and worked in several countries. She is an experienced leader and facilitator for defining strategic vision, organizational improvement, identifying innovative solutions and transferring new ideas into new business, in managerial as well as in consulting roles. She holds a Master’s degree from Delft University of Technology, faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, with a specialization in Strategic Product Design and Design for Sustainability.

Ilse Zaal

Ilse Zaal is a legal expert, academic and governmental administrator. Upon completing her PhD in 2014, she worked for many years at the University of Amsterdam as an associate professor. In 2020 Ilse’s career led into politics and for the past three years she worked as a deputy in the province of North Holland on the topics of economy, labour market and education. As deputy, Ilse supported start-ups and scale-ups in regard to sustainable innovation.

Marie Louise Blankesteijn

As an associate professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and program director of the Bachelor Science, Business & Innovation (SBI), I am positioned at the heart of experimental and entrepreneurial science. In that position, I devote my expertise and skills to the further development of entrepreneurial science & engineering, and education. I do so both on the level of research, via my Science & Tech Entrepreneurship Group – as well as on a practical level, as being involved in teaching and educational management. Unique about our approach is, that the work in our research group feeds directly into our educational management and teaching, for an evidence-informed didactical approach.

Ivana Išgum

Ivana Išgum is a Distinguished Professor in AI and Medical Imaging at the University of Amsterdam. She has appointments at the University Medical Center Amsterdam – location UvA (Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Physics & Radiology and Nuclear Medicine) and Faculty of Science (Informatics Institute), where she leads Quantitative Healthcare Analysis (qurAI) group, an interfaculty research group embedded in Faculties of Medicine and Science. Her current research aims at enhancing patient care by designing and enabling leading-edge AI technologies in healthcare, especially in the fields of radiology, cardiology, and neonatology.

Wouter Keij

Wouter Keij has been working as a Fund manager at the Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland (INH) since the start of the Fund in 2018.

INH is an initiative from the UvA, HvA, VU, AUMC, Sanquin and the Province of Noord-Holland. INH has different funds under its management and during the pandemic INH provided so-called Corona Bridge loans in Noord-Holland. INH focusses on early stage financing of academic and non-academic start-ups and SME in Noord-Holland. On average, INH provides one convertible loan every month. The funds are co-funded by the European Union and the Dutch government.

Before 2018, Wouter Keij gained working experience in similar roles in the high-tech industry in the Netherlands. Abroad, he has held various leadership roles. Wouter holds an MSc degree from Delft University of Technology.

Tom Brouwer

Dr. Tom Brouwer won the Amsterdam Science & Innovation Award in 2021 with Flowsure, an automated urine monitor for hospitalized patients. Flowsure provides real-time continuous monitoring, automates registration in the electronic medical record and provides alerts when urine production falls below a predetermined threshold. Automating diuresis monitoring results in improved patients safety, while reducing nursing workload. Today, the innovation is currently being tested in clinical care and talks are ongoing to bring the device to the market with a commercial partner.

As an AmSIA-alumnus, Tom Brouwer will join the jury for this year’s edition of the Amsterdam Science & Innovation Award. Tom is cardiologist in training at the Amsterdam UMC and a clinical epidemiologist. Tom spends most of his time in clinical care and is therefore familiar with the health care sector and it’s challenges.