Presentation of the Quadrant Award 2005
Lenzburg, November 4, 2005 - Quadrant, a global leader in the manufacture of highperformance
thermoplastics and composites, presented the «Quadrant Award» for the first
time last Saturday. This scientific award with a prize of EUR 15 000 was won by Laurence
Mathieu of France, who wrote her thesis at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in
Switzerland.
An exceptional feature this year was the award of two second prizes, reflecting
the high quality of the entries. The winners of these awards, with a prize of EUR 5 000 each,
were Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and Jan K. W.
Sandler from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. The international invitation to
submit entries for the award was addressed to graduates who had produced a thesis work in
the subject field of «Materials and processes related to engineering and high-performance
plastics and composites» between August 1, 2004, and July 31, 2005. Prior to the awards
presentation ceremony, the jury had nominated six candidates from the entries received, who
then had the opportunity to present their work to the jury of experts in Lenzburg, Switzerland.
The jury selected Laurence Mathieu as winner of the first prize for her thesis entitled «Processing of
porous polymer composites for bone tissue engineering» because «she was driving innovative ideas
into an impressive realisation in the highly complex and transdisciplinary field of biomaterials, and
this by understanding both the theoretical possibilities and the practical limitations involved in the
creation of these emerging materials». The two second prizes were conferred for the theses entitled
«Boundary integral equations for viscous flows - non-Newtonian behavior and solid inclusions» by
Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz and «Structure-property-relationships of carbon nanotubes/nanofibres and
their polymer composites» by Jan K. W. Sandler. Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz was praised by the jury
«for an excellent contribution to the theoretical developments in computational rheology, and for an
exciting visualisation of complex phenomena in polymer and composites processing», whereas Jan
K. W. Sandler was acclaimed «for bringing clarity and structure in the fast evolving field of carbon
nanotube based composites, and for scaling the process-property relationships up to the level of
commercial manufacturing techniques».
The members of the academic jury are on the staff of internationally acclaimed universities or
institutions, have many years of experience in the field of plastics sciences, and supervise numerous
master's graduates and doctoral candidates annually. The members of the jury are: Professor Volker
Altstädt, Chair of the department for Polymer Engineering, University of Bayreuth, Germany,
Professor Jan-Anders Månson, Vice-President and Head of Innovation and Valorisation, École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Professor Ignaas Verpoest, Professor in the
Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
The number of entries received was encouraging, especially since Quadrant was conferring this
award for the first time. The international nature of the entries was also very pleasing. The launch of
the Quadrant Award is intended to foster talent and facilitate access to industry for plastics scientists
and engineers after completion of their academic training. Quadrant is also seeking to further
intensify the good cooperative relationship it already enjoys with the scientific community.
The award presented was designed by the internationally renowned Swiss artist Beat Zoderer. Theoriginal artist's multiple (in an edition of 3/3) is based on the artist's idea that thermoplastics can be
worked in the liquid state. Liquid plastic dripping on to an object such as paper or sheeting produces
drops of different sizes, which are also related to the emergence of innovative ideas in the form of
«drops of imagination». Beat Zoderer has translated this idea into a relief landscape of circles. The
base material used was a plastic sheet produced from Ertacetal C blue 50 at Quadrant's plant in
Tielt, Belgium.
Quadrant, a global leader in high-performance polymer materials in the form of semi-finished and finished
products with locations in 18 countries, generates annual sales of some 700 million Swiss francs. The speciality
engineering thermoplastics and composites manufactured and marketed by more than 2000 employees
worldwide are superior in performance to metals and other materials and are used in a growing number of
applications, primarily in the capital goods industry. Together with leaders in a wide range of customer markets,
Quadrant is continuously developing new areas of application. Thanks to its clear strategic orientation and
focus, Quadrant has generated substantial added value for customers and shareholders since it was established
in 1996 and is well prepared to continue expanding its market leadership in future.
Further information obtainable from:
René-Pierre Müller, Chief Executive Officer info@qplas.com
Quadrant AG, Talstrasse 70, CH-8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 (0)44 213 66 66, Fax +41 (0)44 213 66 99
www.quadrantplastics.com
