About Helberg-Proctor

Helberg-Proctor, part of the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), is an anthropologist and interdisciplinary social scientist in the Health, Care and the Body programme group at the UvA Department of Anthropology. She investigates how ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ appear in scientific and technological practices in care and medicine, and how these are intertwined with society, politics, cultural values, and historical and (post)colonial contexts. In 2025, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport commissioned her to write a report on the present-day impact of colonial history and transatlantic slavery on the Dutch healthcare system and on the health of descendants of enslaved people. She is currently part of the KMK consortium, which is researching the colonial history of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In April 2026, an international consortium led by Helberg-Proctor was awarded a €3.3 million grant from the Dutch Research Agenda (NWO-NWA) to research the lasting impacts of Dutch slavery and colonialism.

Other winners

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Wilbert Djaoen. The other category winners were actor Emmanuel Ohene Boafo (Arts & Culture), Sabrina Starke and Irene Hin of Diaspora Wellhouse (People & Society), sports entrepreneur Dennis Toppin (Sport), Kayleigh Cherise (Social Media Influencer), and brothers Quincy, Toninho and Giorgio Berkleef of the online platform Theorietoppers (Entrepreneurship).

Previously awarded UvA researchers

UvA researchers have been recognised in the Science & Education category before: Nawal Mustafa (ASCA) won the award last year, and emeritus professor Humphrey Lamur received it in 2018.