Best Young Researcher Award

The scientific committee will award the best young researcher's paper. The selection will be done over those young delegates up to 35 years old. The awarded scientist will gain the status of invited speaker at the next TOP Conference with registration and accommodation fees waived.

Eligibility Criteria
  • Candidates should be up to 35 years old.
  • Candidates should give an oral talk.
  • Candidates must submit the application form at the link (in order to see the application form, please login to the TOP Conference website).

Previous Editions Winners

Year: 2018
Winner: Ana Rita Martins
Title of the Presentation: Effect of Intermolecular Interactions on the Viscoelastic Behavior of Polyamide Melts
Biography.
Ana Rita Martins was born and raised in Portugal. Currently, she is working as a research engineer in the polymer field at the Solvay Research and Innovation center of Lyon, France. After 3 years in a mixed research unit (Solvay/CNRS), she received her PhD in Materials Science in 2019 from the University Claude Bernard of Lyon. Her doctoral research concerned the effect of intermolecular interactions on the viscoelastic behavior of polyamide melts. Her current research interests include polymer rheology, polymer composites, thermoplastic and thermoset polymers for industrial applications.
Year: 2016
Winner: Pierre-Yves Le Gac
Title of the Presentation: Prediction of mechanical property loss in polyamide during immersion in sea water
Biography.
No biography.
Year: 2016
Winner: Martina Salzano de Luna
Title of the Presentation: Protection of bronze artefacts through polymeric coatings based on nanocarriers filled with corrosion inhibitors
Biography.
Martina Salzano de Luna received her PhD in Materials Engineering in 2015 at the University of Naples Federico II. As PhD candidate, in 2014 she was visiting student at the Imperial College London. Her doctoral research concerned the dynamic and structures of nanoparticles in polymer melts. She currently is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Composite and Biomedical Materials of the National Research Council (Italy). Her current research interests include polymer nanocomposites and blends, bio-based polymers, polymer nanocomposite coatings for conservation of cultural heritages, and bio-based polymer nanocomposites for environmental application.
Year: 2014
Winner: Valentina Mazzanti
Title of the Presentation: Rheological and Thermal Properties of PP-based WPC
Biography.
Valentina Mazzanti is a postdoc at the Engineering Department of University of Ferrara. She received her Ph.D., M.D. in Materials Engineering and B.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ferrara. She has expertise in materials and technological processes. The main line of research concerns the recycling of plastics and natural fibers for the optimization of a composite material for building applications and manufacturing.
Year: 2012
Winner: Md Arifur Rahman
Title of the Presentation: Damage Initiated Self-Healing in Ionomer Blends
Biography.
Md. Arifur Rahman was born and raised in Bangladesh. Currently, he is working as a postdoctoral research associate with Prof. Eric Baer at the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering in Case Western Reserve University. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering of University of Brescia, Italy. Dr. Rahman has more than 30 peer reviewed publications and conference papers related to the multiphase polymer systems. His current research focus is to understand the structure-property relationship in various multilayer polymeric systems.
Year: 2010
Winner: Silvia Caponi
Title of the Presentation: Vibrational properties of a reactive mixture Investigated during a chemical vetrification process
Biography.
Silvia Caponi received her degree in Physics at the University of Perugia in 1999. In 2004 she defended her PhD thesis in Physics at the University of L’Aquila. In the same year, she obtained a Research Assistant position at the department of Physics in the University of Trento. In 2005 she became researcher at the centre Soft-INFM-CNR (Roma). At present, she is researcher at the IOM Institute in Perugia of the National Research Council. She is author of more than 50 scientific paper published in international peer-reviewed journal (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=lzyZvCgAAAAJ&cstart=40&pagesize=20). Her main areas of research interest are the collective dynamics of amorphous solids, the structural arrest, the glass transition and the polymerization processes. Recently her research area includes also micro-spectroscopic-imaging of biological systems. In the framework of these research activities, she had further deepened the spectroscopic investigation of condensed matter taking part in numerous experiments in the major national and international infrastructures establishing numerous collaborations.

What about TOP Conference!
Marina G. Guenza
Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Oregon
The TOP conference has presented in the years a valuable mix of internationally renowned speakers and local presenters, which creates an interesting group of interacting scientists and engineers, comprising all the levels of expertise from the students and postdoctoral researchers to the world experts.

The interpersonal climate and the local setting are congenial to the informal interaction of all involved.
Jean-Luc GARDETTE
Professeur Emérite
Editor-in-Chief of Polymer Degradation and Stability
Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand - Equipe Photochimie - POPPI
TOP Conference is a well reputed conference on the advancement of materials science and technology, meaningful occasion to confirm major research results and up-to-date research trends in the world, and materialize the results of research. The Conference is unique in that it attracts numerous chemists, physicists and scientists from diverse fields in efforts to promote interdisciplinary research on polymers and composites.
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