Bright Science Awards Program – rewarding excellence
DSM is deeply committed to promoting pioneering research that leads to products or applications that enhance people's quality of life. That is why we recognize and reward scientists outside DSM who have displayed excellence in innovative research.
The DSM Bright Science Awards Program is an integral part of our open innovation approach. It keeps us in direct touch with the people, ideas and innovations that can help us make this world a brighter place.
Every year the DSM Bright Science Awards Program recognizes and rewards the smart thinking of both young and established scientists.
The Awards
DSM Science & Technology Awards
The DSM Science & Technology Awards recognize PhD research students in two European regions who conduct innovative research with clear potential for practical applications. The research fields can be very diverse. In 2011 one of the two award winners discovered new and important aspects of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which can be used to convert renewable resources such as biomass into long-chain hydrocarbons while the other conducted research that offers the promise of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for assessing human health and chronic diseases.
The finalists for the 2012 awards were announced recently on our website where further details of this year’s awards events can also be found. More>
DSM Nutrition Award
The DSM Nutrition Award rewards outstanding contributions to innovative research in the field of human and animal nutrition by established scientists anywhere in the world. The award is presented every two years and alternates between the fields of human and animal nutrition. The DSM Nutrition Award 2011 for research on Animal Nutrition was granted to Dr. Yves Nys of INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to research in the field of poultry nutrition.
DSM Performance Materials Award
The DSM Performance Materials Award is presented once every two years, in cooperation with the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The award recognizes and rewards outstanding contributions to the advancement of the materials sciences.
“It makes me feel very proud indeed. I am happy that advanced work on non-hype type of topics is now also recognized for its great importance and relevance,” said Professor Han E.H. Meijer on receiving the DSM Performance Materials Award for 2010.
The 2012 award will be presented to Prof. Geoffrey Coates of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (US) during a presentation ceremony at the IUPAC World Polymer Congress 2012 in Blacksburg, VA (US) on 25 June. DSM will issue a press release on this topic on 26 June.
Polymer Technology Award
The Polymer Technology Award was established in 2011 in partnership with the Division of Polymer Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS POLY). It is granted for innovative PhD or post-doctoral research in polymer technology. The first recipient, Cole DeForest, received the award for his PhD research in the field of responsive polymer hydrogels.
Four finalists have been selected for the 2012 award: Brian Adzima (University of Colorado at Boulder), Andrew Davis (University of Massachussets, Amherst), Frank Leibfarth (University of California Santa Barbara) and Peiwen Zheng (University of Massachussets, Amherst). Judging will take place during a special DSM Symposium at the ACS Fall meeting in Philadelphia (USA) on 21 August 2012, where the four finalists will present their research. The award will be presented to the winner at a ceremony to be held on 22 August.
