Debecker, from the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanoscience at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium, has worked in the field of MoO3-based heterogeneous catalysts for the metathesis of propylene 1 as part of his PhD.
Damien’s entry was one of 33 entries submitted from all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
“I would like to congratulate Damien for his outstanding work and I hope that the award will serve as encouragement and motivation in his academic career and beyond,” said Umicore CEO Marc Grynberg.
The Umicore Scientific Award was launched in 2007 and aims to highlight the role that fundamental academic research has to play in industry and society as a whole. The main Award is granted to a PhD graduate that, through his or her research, has significantly contributed to science in fields that are important both for the growth of Umicore’s business and the development of a sustainable society. These areas include fine particle technology and applications, technology for metal-containing compounds, sustainable energy related topics, catalysis and economic or societal issues linked to metal-containing compounds.
Four additional awards were granted to David Moerman (University of Mons), Adrien Timmermans (University of Liège), Kurt Lejaeghere (University of Gent) and Sammy Verbruggen (Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) & University of Antwerp (UA)).
