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Veerle Sterken awarded the Christophe Plantin Prize 2021

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We are delighted to announce that this year's Christophe Plantin Prize has been awarded to Dr. Veerle Sterken for her pioneering research into interstellar dust in the solar system.

by Anna Radi

Veerle Sterken the leader of the Astrophysical Dust Group at the Department of Physics, ETH Zurich. Her group explores the science of cosmic dust near and inside the solar system. It is supported by the prestigious ERC (European Research Council) Starting Grant “ASTRODUST: The Heliosphere and the Dust: Characterisation of the Solar and Interstellar Neighbourhood”. The project receives thus funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programmme.

In 2019, Dr. Sterken was one of the ETH scientists awarded an ERC Starting Grants of approximately €1.5 million. The ERC Starting Grant is internationally recognised as one of the highest awards for young researchers. In particular, women awarded the grant, serve as important role models for future female researchers.

The study of cosmic dust from interstellar space is important for astronomical observations, for astrochemistry, and for processes in the interstellar space. Also, the particles of this dust are messengers of the places where they were "born", and can - through their dynamics - tell us more about the heliosphere.

Dr. Veerle Sterken (on the left) awarded the 2021 Christoffel Plantin Price for Science at this year's award ceremony in Antwerpen Belgium. She is pictured here with Mr. Guy van Doosselaere, chairman of the Fund Christophe Plantin, and Dr. Cathy Berx, Governor of the Province of Antwerp. (Image:  Fonds Christoffel Plantin)
Dr. Veerle Sterken (on the left) awarded the 2021 Christoffel Plantin Price for Science at this year's award ceremony in Antwerpen Belgium. She is pictured here with Mr. Guy van Doosselaere, chairman of the Fund Christophe Plantin, and Dr. Cathy Berx, Governor of the Province of Antwerp. (Image:  Fonds Christoffel Plantin)

Dr. Sterken and her team collaborate internationally with several other research teams, among other, the Interstellar Probe mission study team in the USA, and the JAXA/DLR Destiny+ mission team. She has also worked on the results of the NASA Stardust mission for the Interstellar Preliminary Examination. The Stardust mission team is the only team to have gathered what is presumed to be interstellar dust, and then analysed in the lab. The key results of the Stardust mission were published in external page Science. In Switzerland, Dr. Sterken's ERC-funded group is embedded in the external page National Center of Competence PlanetS (NCCR PlanetS), for collaborations more closeby.

Artist impression of the Interstellar Probe mission concept in which the Astrodust team is currently involved. On the right-hand side insert, the instrument with the opened lid is the dust instrument that is envisaged to fly with the spacecraft (the left-hand side insert shows a particle suite). (Image: Johns Hopkins APL)
Artist impression of the Interstellar Probe mission concept in which the Astrodust team is currently involved. On the right-hand side insert, the instrument with the opened lid is the dust instrument that is envisaged to fly with the spacecraft (the left-hand side insert shows a particle suite). (Image: Johns Hopkins APL)

Veerle Sterken has earned her MSc in Aerospace Engineering at Delft Technical University (TU Delft), and her PhD in Geophysics at the Technical University of Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig) under the supervision of Professor Eberhard Grün, one of the world specialists in the study of interplanetary and interstellar dust, on the subject of “filtering of interstellar dust in the solar system”.

Artist impression of the Interstellar Probe at 500 Astronomical Units (AU) in comparison with the few spacecrafts currently the furthest away that still provide us with data: Voyager 1 and 2, without a dust detector (distances of 154.5, respectively 128.5 AU), and New Horizons (with a student dust counter) at 51.6 AU from the Sun. (Image: Johns Hopkins APL)  
Artist impression of the Interstellar Probe at 500 Astronomical Units (AU) in comparison with the few spacecrafts currently the furthest away that still provide us with data: Voyager 1 and 2, without a dust detector (distances of 154.5, respectively 128.5 AU), and New Horizons (with a student dust counter) at 51.6 AU from the Sun. (Image: Johns Hopkins APL)  

The most striking feature of Dr. Sterken is her versatility: She has working experience in academic labs, an industrial research centre, and a major space agency in four different European countries. Her knowledge ranges from the application of advanced mathematical simulation models with the aim of characterising interstellar dust and its interaction with our heliosphere, to mission design as well as to instrument calibration experiments.

Veerle Sterken manages with ease to perform successfully in the various roles required for her research: from space scientist, experimentalist, modeller to engineer. In addition to her research, teaching at the ETH Zurich (external page Astronomical observation and instrumentation), and conference contributions, Dr. Sterken also finds time for science outreach projects for a general audience. These include Astronomy on Tap, Bern – Space Bubbles and Dust, and at Fantasy Basel - Space dust in the solar system. With her passion and the motto “stof is tof” (dust is cool) she manages to capture and fascinate every audience.

She is a definitely rising star in this field!

Christophe Plantin Prize

The external page Christophe Plantin prize was created in 1968 in honour of Christophe Plantin, a French Renaissance humanist, book printer, and publisher who lived in Antwerp. The prize is awarded to Belgians living abroad for their special achievements in Science, Social Commitment, or Culture with the goal of promoting Belgium's influence around the world. Each domain is thus awarded the prize in turn every three years, i.e. 2021 for Science.

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