GUF-100 prizes 2023

The GUF-100 prizes are awarded every year to the best students at our university. It is exactly thirty years ago that these prizes were awarded for the first time. That was on the occasion of the hundred year’s anniversary of the Groningen University Fund (GUF). This year the award ceremony took place on 7 July during the Ceremony of Merits.
GUF-100 prizes consist of a certificate and an amount of €2,500 in prize money. In addition, the prize winners are asked to join the GUF100 community and one of them is invited to make a short speech at the official opening of the 2023-2024 academic year in the Martinikerk.

A jury selects the 11 prize winners from the candidates nominated by the faculties. There is one winner per faculty. In addition to the members of the GUF Board, the jury also included Dewi Koster, the student assessor of the Board of the University. The GUF100 award was skilfully organized by Lia Verbaas and Professor Hanny Elzinga.

A UG-wide appeal is made for candidates for the GUF-100 prizes. Students can put themselves forward, and lecturers and fellow students can nominate candidates from within their faculty. Faculty committees study the letters of motivation and CVs that they receive, before selecting three of the nominated students. Good academic results are important for nomination, but candidates must also be able to demonstrate outstanding personal or academic merit beyond their studies. Finally, the 33 nominees from all 11 faculties are invited to give a pitch presentation before the jury, and to answer some questions.

Every year, it is gratifying to see how many good students apply or are nominated, and the excellent job that the faculty selections committees do to ultimately put forward three outstanding candidates. This also makes it inspiring for the jury to read the submitted motivation letters and CVs, to witness all these excellent students hold their pitch, and finally to choose the winners from their midst. In this context, it is interesting to note that nearly half of the prize winners this year (five out of eleven) were international students, and that much more than half of them were women (eight out of eleven).

The short laudations below only offer a glimpse of our appreciation for the prize-winning students. Hopefully, reading them will nevertheless give you an impression of the extraordinary students who study at our university. We are justifiably proud of them.

On behalf of the jury, Professor Lou de Leij, Chair of the Board of the Groningen University Fund