ESAI are delighted to announce Adrienn Szucs from Trinity College Dublin is the winner of the prestigious ESAI Postgraduate Researcher of the Year Award 2023. Adrienn’s research was titled “Advancing Rare Earth Element Science: Mimicking Nature for Sustainable Solutions and a Greener Tomorrow”. Rare earth elements (REEs) serve as critical components in renewable technologies and electronic devices, essential for maintaining our quality of life. This research explored mimicking natural processes rather than focusing solely on natural resources to meet the growing demand for REEs. This research was supervised by Dr Juan Diego Rodriguez-Blanco, TCD. Read more about Adrienn’s research here.
This year the ESAI has decided to acknowledge the extremely high standard of competition by acknowledging a second researcher who was of exceptional standard but just missed out on the overall prize.
Postgraduate Researcher of the Year 2023 Highly Commended: Sarpong Hammond Antwi a researcher who was based in Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) with their supervisor Dr. Suzanne Linanne. This project focused on Water Governance and Management Practices in the Republic Of Ireland: Past, Present and the Future by identifying the factors that have driven policy reforms and making recommendations towards a sustainable water future. The ESAI determined that this research was of extremely high scientific merit and worth a special mention. Read more here.
Congrats to both researchers. The ESAI will be featuring their research on our upcoming newsletter and website in the coming weeks.
The winner will receive the prize of €500 and their certificate will be presented at the opening ceremony of Environ 2024. They will also be invited to give a guest lecture at the subsequent ESAI AGM which takes place at the ENVIRON 2024.