Indian-origin scientist Joyeeta Gupta wins top honour in Dutch science

New Delhi: Joyeeta Gupta, a scientist of Indian origin in the Netherlands, has been awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest distinction in Dutch science which is also sometimes referred to as the 'Dutch Nobel Prize', according to a statement.

The University of Amsterdam statement said she was awarded for her outstanding, pioneering and inspiring scientific work in which she focuses on a just and sustainable world.

Gupta will receive 1.5 million euros to spend on scientific research and activities related to knowledge utilisation. The official presentation will take place on October 4, it said.

A professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam, Gupta is also the co-chair of the Earth Commission. She plans to use the prize money to work towards implementing the ideas she presented in her inaugural lecture in 2014 on sharing the 'eco-space' (environmental utilisation space) globally, according to the statement.

This would require some kind of global environmental constitution. Such a constitution would aim at protecting environmental conditions in an equitable manner worldwide using constitutional law and would be a fitting way to bring global environmental and developmental issues together, it said.