Presentation of the Quadrant Award 2011

Quadrant, a global leader in the manufacturing of high-performance thermoplastics and composites, conferred the coveted international «Quadrant Award» for the fourth time on Saturday, January 22, 2011. The international invitation to submit entries for the award was addressed to graduates who had written a doctoral thesis in the field of «Materials and processes related to engineering and high-performance plastics and composites» between October 1, 2008, and September 30, 2010. This scientific award with a first prize of EUR 15 000 was won by the Japanese researcher Dr. Tadashi Kajiya, who wrote his thesis at The University of Tokyo, Japan, and is now pursuing post-doctoral studies at the Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes of the Université Paris Diderot, France. The second prize of EUR 7 000 went to the Swiss scientist Dr. Norman Lüchinger, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland. Dr. Lüchinger is currently in charge for the materials development at Nanograde, a spin-off company of the ETH which he co-founded during his PhD. The winner of the third prize of EUR 3 000 was Dr. Michelle Seitz, USA, at Northwestern University, USA. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and since January 2011 has been working as a Research Scientist at DSM in the Netherlands. Also honored were three Quadrant Award 2011 Finalists: Dr. Stephen Anthony and Dr. Benjamin Blaiszik, both from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and Dr. Ayse Asatekin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. The event took place at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland.

The academic jury awarded the first prize to Tadashi Kajiya for his thesis entitled «Dynamics of the Drying Process of Polymer Solution Droplets». «In his PhD thesis, Dr. Kajiya tackled the fundamental problem of surface deposition from evaporating microdroplets. The problem, affectionately known as the ‘coffee ring effect,’ results in too much deposition near the rim of evaporating droplets, and has many applications to microprinting onto polymers and other processes requiring uniform deposition of substrate from evaporating films. With his apparatus, Kajiya measured droplet shape and polymer column density, enabling him to accurately model the deposition profiles. This inspired him to apply the Marangoni effect to solve the problem, and create uniform deposition profiles through the addition of surfactants.»

The second prize was awarded for the thesis entitled «Metal Nanoparticle Based Composite Materials» by Norman Lüchinger. «The work presented by Dr. Lüchinger showcases a highly innovative problem solving approach. The problems at hand ranged from the production of plastically formable polymeric materials with powerful magnetic properties, to membranes templated by nanoparticles. In his work he addresses hurdles pragmatically by scientific reasoning and experimental studies. Furthermore, Dr Lüchinger has shown how good research can be brought to the industrial scale rapidly, being closely involved in the creation of a start-up company based on his thesis work.».

Michelle Seitz was awarded a prize for her thesis entitled «Triblock Copolymer Gels – Structure, Fracture Behavior and Application in Ceramic Processing». The jury was impressed with «the outstanding quality of Dr. Seitz’ thesis and presentation, which brought together clever experimental design of a model system, elegant structural and rheological characterization, non-linear mechanical tests, and state-of-the-art theory. Her controlled gels with polymer-linked, self assembled micelles were coupled with beautiful fracture morphology studies. The rigor and depth of the data analysis were exemplary.».

Also recognized were thesis works of Dr. Stephen Anthony, Dr. Ayse Asatekin, and Dr. Benjamin Blaiszik who presented invited lectures as 2011 Quadrant Award Finalists.

The members of the academic jury are on the staff of internationally acclaimed universities or institutions, have many years of experience in the field of materials and plastic sciences and supervise numerous doctoral candidates annually. The six members of the academic jury are:

Professor Dr. Volker Altstädt
Director of the Department of Polymer Engineering / University of Bayreuth, Germany

Professor Dr. Glenn H. Fredrickson
Mitsubishi Professor, Chemical Engineering and Materials / University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Professor Dr. Martin Gruebele
James R. Eiszner Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Physics, and Professor of Biophysics and Computational Biology / University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Professor Dr. Jan-Anders Månson
Laboratory of Polymer and Composite Technology / École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Professor Dr. Toshio Nishi
Principal Investigator und Professor / WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan

Professor Dr. Ignaas Verpoest
Professor in Composite Materials at the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering and President of the Leuven Materials Research Centre / Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Professor Dr. Paolo Ermanni, ETH Zurich, Centre of Structure Technologies, presided at the event as a non-jury member.

The number of international entries received was very encouraging (43 in total), and especially also the quality of the papers submitted. The launch of the international Quadrant Award is intended to foster talent worldwide and facilitate access to industry for plastics scientists and engineers after completion of their academic training. Quadrant also aims to make a contribution in building a bridge between industry and academia. The next Quadrant Award is planned to be conferred in 2013.

The award presented was designed by the internationally distinguished Swiss artist Beat Zoderer. The design of the artist's multiple is based on the artist's idea that thermoplastics can be worked in the liquid state. Liquid plastic dripping on to an object such as paper or a panel forms drops of different sizes, which also resemble the emergence of innovative ideas in the form of «drops of imagination». Beat Zoderer has translated this idea into a relief landscape of circles. The base material used was a sheet of Ertacetal C blue 50 plastic produced at Quadrant's plant in Tielt, Belgium.