Staudinger-Durrer Prize

Introduction

To emphasize the importance of Materials Science at the ETH Zurich, the Department of Materials awards the Staudinger-Durrer Prize at its Materials Day. The prize serves to honor those who have rendered outstanding services to materials science, and is named after two of the major scientists in the field to emerge from ETH Zurich in the 20th century: Hermann Staudinger and Robert Durrer. Hermann Staudinger was Professor at ETH Zurich in the period 1912-1926, In 1953 he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his pioneering work in the field of macromolecules. Robert Durrer was Professor at ETH from 1943 to 1961. He laid the foundation for oxygen-based metallurgy, the so-called LD (Linz-Durrer) process.

Scientists that have been honored as prizewinners:

Daan Frenkel (2019) - in recognition of his pioneering contributions to theoretically predict the stability and formation dynamics of self-assembling structures, which generated the design of many new functional materials.

Dieter Richter (2015) - in recognition for his contributions on the use of neutron scattering in Soft matter and his service to the scientific community through his leadership of the network of excellence Softcomp.

Ian Ward (2013) - in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of mechanical properties of solid polymers and polymer-based composites.

Ian Hutchings (2007) - in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of tribology: by advancing our scientific understanding of the complex phenomena involved, by implementing these concepts in practical applications, and by serving the scientific community through his editorship of Wear.

Dawn Bonnell (2005) - in recognition of her pioneering research in the area of nanometer-scale phenomena of complex materials.

Kurt Binder (2003) - in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the area of Monte Carlo Simulations, and, in particular to our understanding of several important polymer systems.

Ulrich W. Suter (2003) - in recognition of his revolutionary contributions to the development of chemically detailed polymer models and for several simulation methods that allow the parameter-free prediction of polymer properities.

Mats Hillert (2001) - in recognition of his outstanding scientific work on thermodynamic properties of materials, phase transformations and formation of microstructure.

Ali S. Argon (1999) - in recognition of his contributions to the field of mechanical properties of materials.

Albert J. Pennings (1998) - for his pioneering research in biomedical polymers.