Van der Schroeff Award

Since 1992 Economics and Business has awarded the Van der Schroeff Award to lecturers who excel in teaching. This year the award went to Esmée Zwiers. In the jury report, she is praised as an excellent lecturer in a challenging but highly relevant field. She applies advanced techniques that are directly relevant to concrete policy issues in healthcare. She knows how to actively engage students and gives them a taste of research in practice by regularly inviting external speakers. Students are very satisfied with her course; one student wrote about one of her subjects: 'Esmée is a great lecturer, always leading the lectures in an interesting and engaging way, creating a friendly and atmosphere open to questions and discussion'. Her accessible and interactive approach makes complex material understandable and motivates students to actively engage with the course material - precisely the qualities embodied in the Van der Schroeff Award. 

ASE Dissertation Prize

Julius Ilciukas received the Dissertation Prize for his thesis Fertility and Family. The jury report praised his work: 'It demonstrates remarkable originality, technical sophistication in the development of new research methods and great social relevance. It examines the economic causes and consequences of fertility in 3 related but independent chapters.' Julius joined the award ceremony online. The other nominees for the prize were Alexandre Carrier, Lisa Timm and Andrea Titton.

Impact Awards

This year, there were 2 winners of the Impact Award 2026: Inez Zwetsloot and Cars Hommes. The award recognises education and research with a clear social impact.  

Inez Zwetsloot received the award for her important role in setting up the AI4Business Lab. She conceived, designed and realised the lab, in which students help companies deploy analytics and artificial intelligence. This bridges the gap between academic knowledge and practice. The AI4Business Lab has since grown into a strong and recognisable example of impactful education, in which students, companies and the university create value together. 

Cars Hommes received the Impact Award for his innovative contribution to economic policy research. Together with the Bank of Canada, he developed CANVAS, an agent-based macroeconomic model. Instead of assuming a single “average” household or company, CANVAS simulates millions of different households, companies and banks that interact with each other. This allows the model to provide better insight into how the economy develops, especially in uncertain times when traditional models fall short.