EASO Early Career Network (ECN) Best Thesis Award 2025 – Meet This Year’s Finalists!
EASO and the EASO ECN congratulates the EASO ECN Best Thesis Award 2025 finalists. Please join us to learn about their research at the EASO Early Career Network Best Thesis Award Session at ECO2025:
Monday, 12 May 2025
ECO2025, Málaga, Spain – Conference Room 3
16:30-18:00
The EASO Early Career Network (ECN) Best Thesis Award aims to recognise exceptional early career researchers for their significant contributions to obesity science. A dedicated session at ECO2025 will showcase three outstanding finalists and their doctoral research. Following these presentations, there will be a discussion on career progression, before the session finishes with the highly anticipated announcement of the Best Thesis Award winner, who will receive an award certificate and a €500 cash prize.
Kelly Jardon (The Netherlands)
Dr. Kelly Jardon obtained her PhD from Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Her thesis, “Precision Nutrition in Cardiometabolic Health – The Role of the Gut Microbiota”, focused on subgroup-targeted nutritional strategies to prevent and treat obesity-related cardiometabolic disorders. Her research examined tissue-specific insulin resistance and the gut microbiota using human intervention studies in a translational and multidisciplinary setting.
Thao Minh Lam (The Netherlands)
Thao Lam is a postdoctoral researcher and project manager for OBCT, a Horizon Europe consortium dedicated to primary obesity prevention. Her doctoral research focused on quantifying the obesogenic environment using indicators such as walkability and drivability indices and examining their associations with obesity-related outcomes in the Netherlands. Her postdoctoral work expands this research to the European level. Thao holds a background in Environmental Sciences and Epidemiology, with research experience in the US and Singapore. She will defend her PhD thesis on April 1, 2025.
Johanna Matilainen (Finland)
Dr Johanna Matilainen is a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland and received her doctoral degree in March 2025. Her PhD research, conducted in the doctoral program of molecular medicine, investigated the effects of obesity on extracellular vesicle secretion from human adipocytes and adipose tissue, as well as the effects of EV-targeting drug treatments. These findings provide unique insights into why obesity increases disease risk and highlight key aspects to consider when developing EV inhibitors for therapeutic use. Johanna is also the chair of the Finnish Society for Cell Biology and a board member of the Finnish Association for the Study of Obesity (FASO).
Join the EASO ECN in Málaga to support these exceptional early career researchers and celebrate their contributions to obesity science!
Early career scientists are encouraged to apply for the opportunity to gain international recognition for their doctoral work. Learn more about the EASO ECN Best Thesis Award, including the application criteria for future Awards, here. Thank you to all ECN members who applied with their excellent research to the EASO ECN Best Thesis Award 2025.