VPH 2026 Awards: Celebrating the Next Generation of In Silico Medicine

Many memorable moments marked the VPH 2026 Conference, held in Milan from 1–4 September 2026. Among them was the Awards Ceremony, recognising some of the youngest and brightest minds in the VPH community and their outstanding contributions to in silico medicine.

We are delighted to present this year’s awardees:

VPH Best Thesis Award

Awarded to the best thesis in in silico medicine defended in 2025.

Winner: Anna Ramella (Politecnico di Milano) — “In-silico high-fidelity modeling of endovascular aortic interventions”.

Finalists: Benedetta Fantaci (Universidad de Zaragoza), Federica Ninno (University College London), Piermario Vitullo (Politecnico di Milano).

VPH Best Presentation Award

Winner: Luca Bontempi (Erasmus MC, TU Delft) — “CT-based thrombus mechanical phenotyping in acute ischemic stroke”.

VPH Best Poster Award

Winner: Uzair Manack (TU Delft) — “An optimization framework for designing mechanically informative soft tissue experiments”.

ESTIV Best Abstract Award

Presented by ESTIV for the best abstract in the field of in silico toxicology and New Approach Methodologies (NAMs).

Winner: Joel Vanin (Indiana University) — “V-cornea: a multi-scale in silico framework for ocular toxicology and IVIVE”.

VPH Travel Vouchers

Six VPH Student Members received a travel voucher to help cover travel, accommodation and living expenses associated with attending the conference.

Winners: Alba Fischer Carles (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Abigail W. Laughlin (Columbia University), Rashmini Naranpanawa (Auckland Bioengineering Institute), Joel Vanin (Indiana University), Simão Nieto de Castro (University College Dublin), Chamal Kohombakadawala (Auckland Bioengineering Institute).

Congratulations to all our awardees!

VPH warmly congratulates all the winners and finalists for their achievements. These awards celebrate the talent, creativity and dedication of the next generation of researchers contributing to the advancement of in silico medicine.

We hope these recognitions will support their careers and inspire them to continue making an impact within the VPH community and beyond.