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Young German talent wins prestigious Umicore Scientific Award

Regional website Germany

Brussels, 2 May 2013. Dominik Berg, a German physicist has received the €10 000 Umicore Scientific Award for his PhD work in the field of thin film photovoltaics when studying at the Laboratory for Photovoltaics of the University of Luxembourg.  Dominik’s entry was one of 35 submitted from all over Europe.

Marc Grynberg, CEO commented: “It is a pleasure to hand over the 2013 Umicore Scientific Award to Dominik for his brilliant PhD thesis. I attach great value to this award as it rewards scientific research of a very high level and it contributes to our mission to develop materials for clean technology applications.”

The main Award is granted to a PhD graduate who, through his or her research, contributes to science in those fields that are crucial both to the growth of Umicore’s business and the development of a sustainable society. These areas are: fine particle technology and applications; technology for metal-containing compounds such as recycling; sustainable energy related topics; catalysis and finally, economic or societal issues linked to metal-containing compounds.

Umicore’s partners, the Belgian funds for scientific research Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) and Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), selected the laureates and ensured the scientific excellence of their work. Since its launch 5 years ago, Umicore and its partners have judged over 200 entries and awarded approximately €120 000 to 28 scientists across Europe.

Notes to editors

We received 35 entries coming from Belgium (15), Switzerland (4), Hungary (3), Sweden, France, Germany, Finland, Austria (each 2) and Romania, Luxemburg , Spain (each 1).

The four additional €2 500 Umicore Master Awards were granted to:

  • Hans Simillion of the VUB for his study on nanocontainers which serve as carrier of an anti-corrosion component. This study fits in a broader research project on self-healing coatings and non-toxic, environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitors.
  • Bart Bueken of the KUL for his study on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a new class of porous crystalline solids, as heterogeneous catalysts.
  • Odile Astréoud of the University of Mons for her study on the prospects of using TiO2 nanotube arrays and polyaniline in dye-sensitized solar cells.
  • Vanessa Loodts from the ULB for her study on reactive and convective dissolution of carbon dioxide in salted water: linear stability analysis.