Two of our palaeontologists and one of our citizen scientists have received an award for their contribution to palaeontology.

Koen Stein, Olivier Lambert and Mark Bosselaers have received an award from the non-profit organisation Palaeontologica Belgica. Koen Stein and Olivier Lambert, geologists/paleontologists by training, received a Palaeontologica Belgica Award. They are researching dinosaurs growth and the evolution of marine mammals, respectively. Mark Bosselaers, a citizen scientist at our Institute, also describes fossil cetaceans, especially the fossils that have been excavated around Antwerp since the 19th century (often by volunteers).

Citizen scientists are invaluable to natural sciences: they do fieldwork, build collections, help process data, describe new finds and communicate about them to a wider audience. For this reason, Palaeontologica Belgica has, in addition to a prize for professionals, established a Louis De Pauw Award. This prize is named after the preparator and citizen scientist who acquired world fame at the end of the 19th century with the excavation, preparation and assembly of the Bernissart Iguanodons. Mark Bosselaers and Marcel Vervoenen - he built up a valuable collection of fossilised sea beds, published about it and donated it to science - are the first two to receive the De Pauw award.
 

Watch the livestream of the ceremony with presentations of the awardees and the presentation on the life and work of Louis De Pauw.