Warsaw, December 3, 2012 – The winners of the Golden Medal of Chemistry 2012, the second edition of the prestigious competition with the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Science as the organizer and the Foundation for Polish Science as the partner, were announced. The main prize went to Tomasz Trzeciak from the Warsaw University of Technology. As well as the golden medal, the winner received 10,000 PLN from the exclusive sponsor of the competition, DuPont Poland.
The competition "Golden Medal of Chemistry" was organized for the second time. In this year's edition, 42 theses were submitted, out of which seven were selected by the Jury. The formal announcement of the winners and their awards ceremony took place on December 3 at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The title of Golden Medalist of Chemistry 2012 and the cash prize of 10,000 PLN was granted to Tomasz Trzeciak from the Department of Chemistry at the Warsaw University of Technology. He was awarded for his thesis "A synthesis and study of new sodium salt for purposes of battery industry." The second place and the prize of 5,000 PLN was granted to Krzysztof Borys from the Department of Chemistry at the Warsaw University of Technology for his thesis entitled “Synthesis of Phenylboronic acids containing a thiol group”. The third place and 2,500 PLN were granted to Paweł Kulboka from the Department of Physics at the University of Warsaw for the thesis concerning the influence of mesoscopic properties on the electrical clean-up of hydrogen in pallade nanoparticles.
For each of four additional recognitions, 1,000 PLN were granted. This prize went to Przemysław Wanat from the University of Warsaw, Maciej Korzyński from the Warsaw University of Technology, Marta Fiedot from the Wrocław University of Technology and Zofia Tomasiewicz from the University of Warsaw.
“As a science company, we understand the need for appreciation of young, talented people who at the start of their scientific career are already conducting research that has an impact on the world around us,” Piotr Gill, the Genreal Director of DuPont Poland, said. “The theses submitted for this year's competition demonstrate the enormous potential of young scientists and the continuous development of chemistry as a scientific field in Poland. We are pleased that we can support this development,” he added The competition gives young scientists the opportunity to present their theses in the area of chemistry, biology or chemistry or physics.
As well as the golden medal and prize money, the finalists will be also given an internship opportunity and the research they proposed in their theses will be conducted in the laboratories of the Institute in the form of short-term or long-term projects. Most theses were provided by the students of the University of Warsaw, the Wroclaw University of Technology and the Warsaw University of Technology, which submitted 9, 8 and 6 entries, respectively.
The students interested in participating in the competition could submit their theses until the half of September. The authors of the best 15 theses were invited to present their research results in the form of a ten-minute presentation during an open meeting. Basing on an overall assessment of a thesis and the presentation of the scientific achievements of each competition participant, the jury of the competition selected the best young scientists in the field of chemistry in the year 2012.
“The theses which were granted with awards are directly related to the research concerning new chemical systems with specific physicochemical properties. Although these theses are mainly basic research, they were certainly inspired with potential practical applications. It should be noted that most of the theses submitted to the competition were of a similar nature, as part of the broadly understood field of materials science. This also applies to two of the four awards. Much of the theses submitted to the competition was dedicated to research at the frontier of chemistry and biology. Looking at the themes of the theses submitted to the competition we may say that the participants conducted their work on the most current areas of research chemicals,” explains Professor Andrzej Kapturkiewicz from the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences, who was the competition coordinator.
“The competition is addressed to the authors of the engineering scientific theses. The aim of the competition is to encourage young people to permanently involve themselves in science. We want them to continue their research in the future. We are aware that without young scientists, the Polish science is just not going to grow,” professor Robert Hołyst, the director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences, adds.
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