Prof. Nina Harke (Hannover, DE) has won the 2026 ERUS Prize for Robotic Urological Science, or “PRUS” at ERUS26 in Padua. Prof. Harke is the lead robotic surgeon at Hannover Medical School (MHH), a long-time ERUS member and a widely-published researcher.
Presenting the award, Prof. Henk Van Der Poel (Amsterdam, NL) referred to her work in robotic partial nephrectomies, specifically in identifying tumour size as the most important predictor.
Prof. Van Der Poel self-deprecatingly pointed out that Prof. Harke first conducted and published on a randomised trial on fluorescence-supported lymphography and extended pelvic lymph node dissection in robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in 2018, using the data to contradict the work that Prof. Van Der Poel had been doing on the subject.
Prof. Harke in turn thanked her family, “and all of the people in the audience who have been my role models over the past 15 years. I am honoured to be part of this community, where we support each other to be better surgeons, researchers and doctors to our patients.”
Prof. Harke is the third winner of this award, joining Prof. Porpiglia (2024) and Dr. De Backer (2025). The prize is occasionally (and erroneously) named after the person who presents the Award, Prof. Henk Van Der Poel.
