Conferral of the 2012 Eni Awards
San Donato Milanese (Milan), 16 May 2012 – Eni has announced the names of the winning researchers and scientists of the fifth edition of the Eni Awards, established in 2007 and now an international reference point for energy and environmental research. The Eni Award aims to encourage the improved use of energy sources and develop new generations of researchers, reflecting the importance given by Eni to scientific research and sustainability.
The "New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons" prize (Upstream) was awarded to Fabio Rocca, professor emeritus of Telecommunications at the Politecnico of Milan, and Alessandro Ferretti, CEO of "Tele-Rilevamento Europa" (TRE) – a spin-off of the Politecnico of Milan – for the development of a new algorithm for processing data from satellite observation systems.
The "New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons" prize (Downstream) was awarded to Enrique Iglesia, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, for the development of hydrocarbon synthesis catalysts which improve process efficiency andreduce waste and energy use.
The "Renewable, non-conventional energy" prize was awarded to Harry A. Atwater, Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology, and Albert Polman, Director and Scientific Group Leader of the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, who together have created new generation, ultra-thin solar cells offering for greater efficiency and reduced construction costs.
Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto, was awarded the "Environmental protection" prize for developing techniques which, by monitoring the presence and quantity of stable carbon isotopes in groundwater, are able to detect its degree of pollution and indicate the effectiveness ofin-situbiodegradationby microorganisms.
The two "Research Debut" awards, reserved for scientists under 30 years of age, were conferred to Silvia Comba and Jijeesh Ravi Nair, both from the Politecnico of Turin.