We are proud to announce that Dr. Gabriela Corrêa Carvalho, a former PhD student from our department and UMCG, has been honored with two major academic distinctions from the São Paulo State University (Unesp):
- The Unesp Thesis Award in the Biological Sciences Area 2025, and
- The Unesp Grand Thesis Award 2025 — the highest academic recognition granted by the university.
Dr. Carvalho received these awards for her outstanding doctoral thesis entitled:
“Nano-in-nano containing curcumin and benzydamine hydrochloride for the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis: from development to biological application in vitro and in vivo.”, https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.1033301957.
Her PhD work was conducted under a joint supervision program between the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences – Unesp (Brazil) and the Department of Biomaterials and Biomedical Technology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen (The Netherlands). The thesis was successfully defended on July 17, 2024, under the supervision of Prof. Hélder A. Santos (UMCG) and Prof. Dr. Marlus Chorilli (Unesp), with co-supervision from Prof. Taís Maria Bauab (Unesp), Dr. Rafael Miguel Sábio (Unesp), and Dr. Brandon W. Peterson (UMCG).
The Unesp Thesis Award, now in its 8th edition, recognizes PhD theses that demonstrate exceptional scientific quality, innovation, and social, economic, or cultural relevance, while contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Each year, the award distinguishes the best theses in five fields: Biological Sciences, Humanities and Arts, Health Sciences, Engineering, Exact and Earth Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences.
Among the winners of these five areas, Dr. Carvalho’s work was further selected for the Unesp Grand Prize for Theses, the most prestigious academic honor bestowed by Unesp, recognizing it as the best PhD thesis across all disciplines in 2025.
These two awards highlight the excellence of Dr. Carvalho’s research work, the strong international collaboration between Unesp and UMCG, and the impact of innovative nanomedicine research emerging from our department.
We warmly congratulate Dr. Gabriela Corrêa Carvalho and her supervisors on this remarkable achievement!
