ZwickRoell Academia Day

For the ninth time in succession, ZwickRoell hosted Academia Day, which provides the setting for the presentation of the 2017 ZwickRoell Science Award. On May 15, 2018 at Sapienza Univeristy, the winners were chosen out of over 100 entries submitted by 70 participants from 17 countries. The jury awarded this year's winners in the heart of Rome in front of the impressive backdrop of the coliseum and San Pietro in Vincoli. Nine speakers from Italy, Germany, the USA, and Portugal created relevant scientific presentations on "Testing of high performance, lightweight and sustainable materials". First prize, as well as 5,000 euros and the Paul Roell Medal, was awarded to Jan from the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad for his studies on improving the mechanical properties of composites that are strengthened with hexagonal boron nitride. A. Y. Chen from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology received second prize for his work on the microstructure and strength of pure copper the size of a large grain through co-channel angle presses. Another second prize was awarded to Hinnerk Oßmer from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, for his entry on the development of temperature profiles in TiNi-based films for elastocaloric cooling. Third prize went to Lucio Maragoni from Padua University for his research on the fatigue behavior of glass/epoxy laminates with cavities.

Within the framework of ZwickRoell Academia Day 2017, the presentation of the ZwickRoell Science Award took place on May 26, 2017 at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Over 70 participants from 20 countries submitted 100 and gave the judges a difficult task to choose amongst them.

First prize, including 5,000 euros and the Paul Roell Medal, was awarded to Maria F. Pantano from the University of Trento in Italy, for her MEMS technology based nano testing machine for the characterization of small components and materials. Progressive miniaturization and the increasing use of nano materials necessitate micro-scale characterization, as characteristic values from macroscopic tests cannot be scaled at will. David Jocham of the Technical University of Munich received second prize for his method of biaxial determination of the yield locus of mild steel during forming. Third prize was awarded to Zihao Quin of Tsinghua University in China for his work in the field of oscillating signals in dynamic materials testing at high speeds.

On April 26, 2016, the winners of the ZwickRoell Science Award 2015 received their awards in the course of the seventh ZwickRoell Academia Day, held at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague against a scientific backdrop of lectures on the subject of materials testing. This year’s winner of the Paul Roell medal, together with the first prize of 5,000 euros, is Enrique Alabort of the University of Oxford, one of the world’s ten leading engineering universities. In a compelling presentation, he expounded the superplasticity of alloy materials, including for example the properties of polycrystalline materials, which can deform by several hundred percent. Second prize went to Benjamin Zillmann of Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany), with a paper on the biaxial deformation of sheet metals, primarily in compression tests. Third place was occupied by Ozgur Atalay PhD of Istanbul Technical University, who highlighted possible ways of integrating sensors into textiles by means of electrically conductive fibers. The three winners were chosen out of 160 entries from 26 countries.

For the sixth time in succession, ZwickRoell Academia Day was the setting for the presentation of the 2014 ZwickRoell Science Awards. An international audience gathered at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich on June 2, 2015, to celebrate the achievements of this year’s winners of the prize for the most innovative use of a materials testing machine in a scientific context.

A first prize of 5,000 euros went this year to Markus Seidl of the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Innsbruck. His paper describes the special features of the phase diagram of water at very low temperatures and high pressure— an aggregate state that can be brought about by the use of liquid nitrogen and a ZwickRoell AllroundLine testing machine. The results of the research are interesting for all processes in which crystal nucleation and growth is a relevant component, ranging from areas of biology and environmental technology to food engineering and pharmaceutical engineering; for example how this knowledge can be used to extend the shelf life of medicines.

The jury, made up this year of representatives from the University of Bayreuth, the University of Bristol, and the ETH Zurich, awarded second and third places to German scientists. An additional third place went to a project from Spain. The winners also had the opportunity to present their work alongside notable professors as part of the Academia Day series of scientific lectures in front of an international audience of experts.

Photo (from left to right): Markus Seidl (1st prize), Alper Güner (3rd prize), Dr. Stefan Schmaltz (2nd prize), Dr. Rocío Muñoz Moreno (3rd prize)

On April 9, 2014, the winners of the 2013 ZwickRoell Science Award were presented their awards at the fifth ZwickRoell Academia Day at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. The technical framework of the event featured presentations focused on the testing of lightweight materials.

The winner of the Paul Roell Medal and first prize of 5,000 euros was Debrupa Lahiri of the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee. She completed her Master of Technology degree at IIT Kanpur and her doctorate at Florida International University. Her thesis describes the binding behavior of carbon nanotubes with a substrate. Her findings can be used in developing coating technologies for endoprostheses, so they can be better embedded in human tissue.

The second prize went to a scientist from Great Britain, and the third prize was shared by two scientists from the USA and Germany. There were a total of 119 entries for the 2013 ZwickRoell Science Award, and the scientific lecture series of the Academia Days provided a comprehensive view of today's important scientific issues in materials testing.

On April 17, 2013, the winners of the 2012 ZwickRoell Science Award received their awards at the fourth ZwickRoell Academia Day, held this year at Manchester University, England. In addition to various expert presentations on the subject of materials in challenging environments, they also had the opportunity to present their own technical articles.

The winner, Michal K. Budzik, of the University of Bordeaux, examined how to determine the fracture behavior of composites using a ZwickRoell materials testing machine. The results offer a better understanding of industrial bonding processes. Second and third prizes went to projects from Spain and Italy. A total of 72 scientists from 17 different countries took part in the ZwickRoell Science Award.