NWO Spinoza laureates announce plans for their prize money
// September 27, 2013
On September 27, 2013 the three NWO Spinoza laureates of 2013 – physicist Michail Katsnelson, chemist Bert Weckhuysen and linguist Piek Vossen – announced their plans for the 2.5 million euros prize each of them has received.
Piek Vossen, Professor of Computational Lexicology at the VU University Amsterdam: ‘The computer has little understanding of language; just look at online translation programs. I want to change that. With the NWO Spinoza Prize I want to investigate how ambiguity in language works –when is a horse an animal or when is it apiece of gymnastic equipment (vaulting horse)? How does the world around us determine our understanding of language? And I will invest in a large project with which computers will one day be able to automatically write history: the history recorder.’
Spinoza Prize project Piek Vossen
// June 10, 2013
On June 10, 2013 the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) officially announced that Piek Vossen is one of the three winners of the Spinoza Prize 2013.
The NWO Spinoza Prize is the highest Dutch award in science for top researchers with international reputations, also known as the “Dutch Nobel prize’. NWO awards the prize to Dutch researchers who rank among the absolute top of science. The laureates receive the prestigious prize for their outstanding, groundbreaking and inspiring research. An NWO Spinoza Prize is an honorary award for what the winners have achieved in their scientific career and an encouragement to continue doing excellent research. In essence the prize works as an impulse for scientific research in the Netherlands. The winners are internationally renowned scientists and know how to motivate young researchers. Each of them will receive 2.5 million euro to spend on research of their choice.