Professor Remko Boom receives the 2025 Nils Foss Excellence Prize
The Nils Foss Excellence Prize is given to internationally acclaimed scientists and honors excellent, innovative research leading to remarkable improvements in sustainability, quality and safety in the food supply chain. This year, it has been awarded to Professor Remko Boom.
There is hitting the ground running, and then there is hitting the ground sprinting. For Professor Remko Boom, who joined the Department of Food Science in March, it has been the case of the latter. He joined us with a Novo Nordisk RECRUIT grant of DKK 50. mil.; in the summer he joined the pioneering Acetate Consortium initiative that aims to produce food prototypes derived from CO₂; and now he has been awarded the prestigious Nils Foss Excellence Prize.
"Getting this award means a lot. When you work day to day, you don’t ever think that things could lead to any award. I want to emphasize that this is not just for me — I’ve had about 90 PhD students and many more bachelor and master’s students contributing to this work until now. This recognition belongs to all of us,” says Remko Boom.
The prize is awarded by FOSS Analytical at the yearly Food Analytics Conference, including a prize sum of €100,000. It is given to an internationally recognized scientist, honoring cutting-edge research within the field of food and agriculture. It can, as mentioned during the ceremony by the chair of the selection committee and former rector of the University of Copenhagen, Henrik Wegener, be considered as closest we get to the Nobel Prize for food science.
Scientific breakthroughs and clear impact
In selecting Remko to receive the award, the committee highlights that through multiscale analysis, he has deepened our understanding of food systems and enable innovations like plant-based meat analogues and precision-fermentation. They also emphasize that Remko’s achievements have had clear impact, alongside advancing scientific knowledge: in recent years, his research group from Wageningen University, the Laboratory of Food Process Engineering, has fostered three successful start-up companies.
Colin Ray, Head of the Department of Food Science, underscores that Remko’s research in food process engineering has resulted in significant breakthroughs in the development of mild and sustainable technologies for food production.
“Throughout Remko’s career, he has deepened our understanding of food systems, including plant-based meat analogues and precision-fermented proteins. And on a personal note, in the time that I have been here, I have found Remko to be a great colleague. Humble, energetic, thoughtful, empathetic, and always ready to talk science,” says Colin Ray.