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The faculty winners of the UvA thesis prize have been announced! At the Faculty of Science Heleen Mulder, student Physics and Astronomy, has been named winner. With her thesis ‘Scrutinizing the CKM anomaly within SMEFT and using sterile neutrinos’ she has a chance of winning the prize for the best master's thesis written at the UvA in the past academic year.

 

Heleen: “My thesis was inspired by big questions: what are the smallest building blocks the Universe is made of, and what fundamental interactions determine their behaviour? Impressively, a theory exists which answers these questions to a large extent. However, disagreements between this theory and experimental results remain, and undiscovered particles or interactions could help explain these. In my thesis, I explored such a long-standing disagreement, called the CKM anomaly. I assumed the existence of certain new particles and interactions, and found that these could reduce the disagreement!”

“This was especially exciting because my thesis was, to my knowledge, the first ever analysis of these specific new particles – ‘sterile neutrinos’ in a certain mass range – in relation to the CKM anomaly. Apart from these very interesting results, another memorable and fun aspect of my master’s research was that I had the chance to spend one month in Seattle, in the US. There, I worked together with world experts in this field and attended specialized conferences, where I even got to present my own work. All in all, my thesis was such a positive experience that I decided to continue my research about nature at the smallest scales, now as a PhD candidate.”

About the UvA thesis prize

To participate in the UvA thesis prize 2024, students must have graduated between February 1, 2023 and April 1, 2024 and have scored a 9 or higher for their thesis. The jury chooses a winner per faculty. From these 7 winners, the jury, which consists of the deans of the seven faculties, will choose the best thesis of 2024.

The faculty winners of the UvA thesis prize are nominated by the participating faculties and win 1,000 euros each. They also compete for the main prize: 3,000 euros for the very best UvA thesis in academic year 2023-2024. 

Out of the 7 winners of all faculties at the university, the jury chooses the grand prize winner on 22 October 2024.