The Netherlands Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Mission & Vision

The Netherlands Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NVBMB) seeks to stimulate, encourage and support research and education in biochemistry and molecular biology through the pursuit of scientific knowledge and dissemination of the results of fundamental and applied research. The NVBMB promotes the interests of its members and keeps the public informed about the importance of biochemical and molecular biological research.

Key Activities

NVBMB Speaker of the Year

Since 1980 the society invites a renowned biochemist for a lecture tour in The Netherlands each year. The Speaker of the Year visits three universities where (s)he present a lecture and interacts with scientists and students. Many of the invited speakers are Nobel laureates, while several of the NVBMB Speakers of the Year later received the Nobel prize like Efraim Racker, NVBMB Speaker of the Year in 1982 received the Nobel Prize of Chemistry in 1997; Gunter Blobel, NVBMB Speaker of the Year 1983, received the Nobel Prize of Chemistry in 1999; Paul Nurse, NVBMB Speaker of the Year in 1992 received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2001 and more recently Aaron Ciechanover, NVBMB Speaker of the Year 2004 who received the Nobel Prize of Chemistry in the same year.

NVBMB meetings

• The Annual meeting of the NVBMB is also known as the Fall symposium. It is an international symposium on a ‘hot’ topic. These meetings have free registration.
• In addition, the three platforms also organise yearly specialized meetings.

NVBMB prizes and grants

Each year the NVBMB recognises the excellent achievements of a young Dutch biochemist. The NVBMB award consists of sum of money and funding for a symposium to be organised by the prize winner. The symposium is known as the Spring Symposium.

Many of the awardees are now eminent and established scientists in The Netherlands and abroad.

The organisation supports young scientists by providing travel grants for PhD students and Postdocs.

History

The Netherlands Society for Biochemistry was founded on Saturday October 15, 1927 in the Laboratory for Pharmacology in Utrecht as a non-profit making organisation.  One of the founding members was the microbiologist  A.J. Kluyver, who had published his view on the unity of biochemical reactions in living organisms in his classic publication “Die Einheit in der Biochemie”, a year earlier. Right from the start, the newly founded society associated itself with the already flourishing and influential Netherlands Chemical Society. In 1993 the society changed its name to “Nederlandse Vereniging voor Biochemie en Moleculaire Biologie (NVBMB)”, in English: Netherlands Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. This change was the result of the new developments in Biochemistry and an increasing international trend to change the name of Biochemical Societies. The NVBMB has established three working groups: the Netherlands Proteomics Platform (NPP), the Glycobiology platform and the Chromatin platform which have their own identity and organise specialised meetings. The NVBMB celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2002 with a specialised international congress and the publication of a book entitled “Biochemistry: For Science and Society (in Dutch). Up until this day the NVBMB is affiliated with the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV).

The NVBMB became a member of FEBS in 1964.

Membership

At present the NVBMB has around 1200 members. Members receive the independent journal C2W ‘Life Sciences’ every quarter. The magazine includes information about the society and several Life Science articles.

The NVBMB accepts residential as well as non-residential scientists as members. The Young NVBMB (see also on the FEBS Network) is a collaboration between various study associations and the NVBMB to support students and early-career researchers.