ISGS PhD Thesis Award 2021

The ISGS PhD Thesis Award, first launched in 2018, was created to distinguish PhD theses representing outstanding contribution to scientific and/or technological knowledge in the field of sol-gel chemistry and related fields.

The PhD Award Committee for the 2021 competition was composed of Professor Vadim Kessler (Chair), Professor Maria Zaharescu and Professor Aivaras Kareiva..

The members of the PhD Award Committee examined the four applications received, which were all of extremely high quality. All the candidates presented very strong summaries, reflecting very advanced and well-performed Thesis works.

On the present edition, the overall ranking obtained by the members of the Committee placed Dr. Emanuel Carlos and Dr. Sofia Soares (equal, written in alphabetic order) top of the list. Dr. Hyunhwan Lee and Dr. María de los Ángeles Ramírez placed second and third, respectively.

• Dr. Emanuel Carlos’s PhD thesis, entitled “Design and synthesis of low temperature printed metal oxide electronic devices”, was defended at the FCT NOVA, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon (Portugal).
• Dr. Sofia Soares’s PhD thesis, entitled “Magnetic bio-hybrid nanosorbents for the removal of pharmaceutical pollutants and pesticides from water”, was defended at the University of Aveiro, Aveiro (Portugal).

For the Gold Medals, the PhD Award Committee would like to emphasize that both candidates:

1) Made excellent works that contributed to fundamental insights into sol-gel processes for formation of printable electronics and of bio-based polymer incorporating hybrid materials respectively.

2) Mastered and successfully applied a broad variety of methods for characterization of both produced materials and their functional characteristics.

3) Made considerable input in developing attractive industrial applications for related sol-gel materials.

4) Produced large number of excellent scientific publications and conference presentations disseminating their research.