09 mrt 2011
The DEWIS Award for the best female PhD student of 2010 has been awarded to Maaike Snelder, PhD researcher on the Next Generation Infrastructures project 'Optimization of robustness of transport networks'. The DEWIS Award for excellence is intended to reward the quality of the thesis of a young female scientist at the TU Delft. The criteria that need to be met are: a PhD with honours, the anticipated (international and/or social) significance of the research, and the originality of the research question and the approach.
Excellent on many fronts
The jury was unanimous in its opinion that Maaike Snelder deserves the prize, for her research project “Designing Robust Road Networks: a general method applied to the Netherlands”. According to Snelder, traffic congestion that results from accidents can be reduced by simple adjustments to our road network. The jury expects that Maaike’s research will have a significant impact on road users, in both the Netherlands as well as abroad. “The quality of her work is characterized by a thorough analysis, a solid mathematical foundation of the issues, and is supported by excellent designs and models.” Maaike Snelder did not dodge reality by oversimplifying, and conducting a theoretical study that might only be useful ten years from now. “Maaike has made a tool that can be used, a tool that helps,” the jury said. The jury also found the bibliography surprising, especially in the many collaborations with social organizations. Snelder also has an impressive list of publications, on many of which she was the lead author.
Applied research
Maaike Snelder, a trained economist, obtained her PhD partly from TNO and partly from Next Generation Infrastructures. Stationed at the CT (the research school of TRAIL) with Van Zuylen and Ben Immers on head she carried out the research alongside her job at TNO. Parts of her work have already been applied in practice or have otherwise proved useful, for example in TNO projects for the ANWB and the Ministry of Transport. Maaike Snelder has worked with various international partners, and has built up a large network. In 2009, she conducted research at the Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT) in Montreal, Canada.
Link to the dissertation of Maaike Snelder (Next Generation INfrastructures thesis serie no. 41):
Designing Robust Road Networks: A general design method applied to the Netherlands
You can find more information about the research on this website.
