View Hoboken (Belgium) plant after the facelift (early 2009).
Umicore grants first Scientific Award
Umicore has awarded its first
“This goes to the heart of our business,” Chief Technology Officer Marc Van Sande said at the official ceremony in Brussels on December 4 at which the prize - along with a cheque of € 10,000 - was awarded to the winner in front of an audience of researchers, academic staff, industry representatives and the Flemish regional minister responsible for Economy, Science and Innovation.
By turning this into an annual event, Umicore aims to highlight the crucial role fundamental academic research has to play in industry and society as a whole: the scientific quest for intelligent energy-efficient solutions to store and generate power can help turn our society into a sustainable one. The aim of the award is also to get our name out there in the fight for talent. dozens of research institutions and universities around the world: some 150 contacts worldwide, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Leysen said. A great deal of fundamental scientific research finds its way into our technologies, giving the group enough firepower to preserve its technological and market leadership.
Charles Delacourt’s (Université de Picardie, Amiens, France) entry was one of 17 from all over Europe, including Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Germany. The “Umicore Scientific Award” is granted to a PhD graduate that, through his/her research, has significantly contributed to science in those fields that are crucial for the future growth of both Umicore’s business and the prospect of a sustainable society (fine particle technology/applications; sustainable technology for metal-containing compounds; sustainable energy related topics; catalysis and finally, economic or societal issues linked to metal-containing compounds). Three additional “Umicore Awards” (each for an amount of € 2,500) were also granted to masters graduates from the University of Ghent (Jonas Feys, Henk Huisseune) and the Faculté Universitaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux (Julie Leclercq) that have made significant contributions in these fields. Belgian funds for scientific research, FWO and FNRS, selected the laureates and ensured the scientific excellence of the awards.
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