The DPI Golden Thesis Award for 2024 has been granted to Dr. Maximilian (Max) Werny in recognition of his excellent research in the field of polymers, as published in the thesis entitled:
“Probing the Morphology, Composition and Temperature of Olefin Polymerization Catalyst Particles with Microscopy and Spectroscopy”
Dr. Werny defended his PhD thesis in October 2023 at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands). The research described in the thesis formed part of the research programme of DPI and was conducted under the supervision of Professor Bert Weckhuysen and Dr. Florian Meirer of the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands).
The Golden Thesis Award is granted annually for the best PhD thesis resulting from DPI-funded research. Maximiliaan Werny was declared the winner from among the three finalists competing for this year’s award. The other two candidates were: Vincenzo Ianniello (University of Naples, Italy), with a thesis entitled “Rheological Determination of Polyolefin Architecture” and Peihao Song (University of Oxford, United Kingdom), with a thesis entitled “Strain Rate, Temperature, and Their Coupled Effects on the Deformation Process of Four Polycarbonates and a Short Glass Fibre Reinforced Polycarbonate Composite”.
The award was presented during the plenary session of the DPI Annual Meeting 2024 in Eindhoven on November 19.
The three contenders had been selected from a short list of selected seven nominations of twenty PhD theses submitted for the contest. During the plenary session, each of them gave short presentations describing their PhD research in the presence of the Award Committee comprising of Rein Borggreve (CTO DPI), Prof. Bernhard Rieger (Technical University of Munich, also Scientific Chair of the DPI Polyolefins Programme) and Prof. Costantino Creton (VP ESPCI Paris, also Scientific Chair of the DPI Performance Polymers Programme). The committee judged the candidates on four criteria: scientific quality and originality, relevance and societal impact, presentation, and embedding within DPI.