Winners this year are:
• Peter Carmeliet, director of the Vesalius Research Centre at KUL, for his work on blood vessels in the fight against cancer
• Bart De Moor of KUL, for research in linear algebra, an area central to modern mathematics and its applications
• Paul Rutgeerts of KUL, for his work on the origins of intestinal disorders
• Sonja Snacken of the Free University of Brussels (VUB) for her work on a more humane criminal advocacy
• Dirk Inzé of the University of Ghent for his work as head of the celebrated genetics lab, which previously won an FWO excellence award in 1990 and is responsible for developing the world’s first genetically modified plant

Meanwhile, six starting grants have been awarded to young researchers at KUL by the European Research Council. The grants, worth an average of €1.25 million, go to Hans Jacquemyn of the department of biology for work on the associations between orchids and moulds; Peter Janssen, department of neuroscience, for the mechanisms under which the brain converts visual information into motor activity; Philippe Lemey, department of microbiology and immunology, for the spread of viral infections; Adrian Liston, department of experimental medicine, for auto-immune diseases; Giovanni Maglia, department of chemistry, for the study of single molecules using nanopore analysis; and Patrick Verstreken, department of human genetics, for the communication between brain cells.