Staudinger-Durrer Prize

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 the ETH Zurich in the 20th century: Hermann Staudinger and Robert Durrer. Hermann Staudinger was Professor at the 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 the ETH from 1943 to 1961. He laid the foundation for oxygen-based metallurgy, the so-called LD (Linz-Durrer) process.

Seven scientists have been honored as prizewinners:

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

The following have been honored as Staudinger-Durrer Lecturers:

In addition, the following have been honored as medalists for their services to the Department: