The goals of the Dirkzwager-Assink Foundation is to financially support outstanding research in the area of medicine or physics. Related to this is the Dirkzwager-Assink award, which is awarded to the researcher after the research has been completed. Willem Noyons designed the Dirkzwager-Assink award in 2008.

The elements: vision, research, knowledge expansion and improvement of human conditions in an academic framework, lead to René Descartes as one of the founders of Western science. The award is based on the woodcut in which he analyzes the functioning of the eye. Peculiarly, the eye is depicted inside a human being and not as an isolated object. Man, after all, 'sees' and that is more than looking.

The award has two sides and invites the viewer to observe the world as a whole through the small hole or to look through the large window to zoom in on a detail or find themselves observed. By filling the cavity in the award, the parts coincide and create a whole.

Also view the accompanying booklet.