Marjolein Dijkstra wins the 2025 Physica Prize

Marjolein Dijkstra, Professor of Computer Simulations of Soft Condensed Matter at Utrecht University, has been awarded the 2025 Physica Prize. This prize is the most prestigious accolade for physicists working in the Netherlands. As an expert in the physics of soft materials – such as polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals – Dijkstra is internationally recognised for her groundbreaking research and significant impact on the field.

Marjolein Dijkstra is regarded as one of the leading figures in soft matter physics, a field dedicated to understanding and developing soft materials. With more than 300 scientific publications and decades of supervising PhD candidates and postdocs, she has made an enormous contribution to physics.

Breakthrough in colloid research

One of her most notable achievements is her research on colloidal suspensions – liquids containing microscopically small particles. In 2005, she demonstrated how particles with opposite charges can be combined to rapidly form large crystal clusters. This discovery opened up a completely new area of research within colloid physics and has applications in the development of advanced materials.

Active particles and machine learning

Dijkstra is a pioneer in the field of active particles – self-propelled particles. One of her breakthroughs was using these particles to solve the problem of dense random packings of hard spheres, a classic challenge in statistical physics. In recent years, she has also leveraged machine learning to design new, complex materials – an exciting development in her field.

Committed to science and policy

Beyond her scientific achievements, Dijkstra has made significant contributions to strengthening physics in the Netherlands. As a professor since 2007 and a supervisor of 45 PhD candidates and 24 postdocs, she has played a key role in educating new generations of researchers. She has held leadership positions, including at the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, and serves on various advisory boards. Her dedication to science and technology is also evident in her involvement with the Sector Plan Committee for Science and Technology.

Dijkstra's impressive career has been recognised with numerous awards. She received the FOM Minerva Prize (2000), an NWO Vici Grant (2006), the Aspasia Prize (2007), and an ERC Advanced Grant (2020). In 2020, she was appointed as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

This award is a great recognition of my work, but also a recognition of the strong soft matter and biophysics community that we have built here at Utrecht University. Many colleagues, the faculty, departments of physics and chemistry, and the Debye Institute, have contributed to that.