Encouraging up-and-coming scientists around the world
Science is the key to solving society's greatest challenges.
The Syensqo Fund pursues this mission by supporting scientific research and innovation through various awards and initiatives.
On an annual basis, the Fund presents awards to Ph.D. graduates who have successfully defended their thesis the previous year at the Faculty of Sciences or Engineering School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
The prize is €3,000 per laureate, granted to 5 or 6 laureates per year.
The objective of this prize is to encourage young people to train and undertake research in the fields of science and technology where research is essential for the development of current and future industrial activities, to stimulate their inventiveness and encourage them to think of ways their work can contribute to societal progress.
While the excellence of research work remains a major criterion, the selection made by the jury also takes into account the ability to synthesize and communicate the “science” message to non-specialists. In addition, the candidates are invited to present their own views on the potential contribution of their work to the Society towards a more sustainable future.
Advancing scientific research and educational development by providing motivation, inspiration, career advancement and network expansion for graduate students.
2025 Awards session
Congratulations to the 5 laureates of the 2025 session:
- Lieven Bekaert for his doctoral thesis: Towards a stable metal electrode / solid-state electrolyte interface in rechargeable lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries through multiscale modelling.
- Eve-Line Cadotte for her doctoral thesis: The development of microstructure and mechanical properties in Q&P steels: effect of manganese.
- Aleix Costa Cornella for his doctoral thesis: Sustainability of dynamic polymer networks from a holistic point of view.
- Fabio Pino for his doctoral thesis: Feedback control of liquid metal coating.
- Jean Servais for his doctoral thesis: Resonances in three-body atomic systems by Lagrange-mesh methods.
2024 Awards session
Congratulations to the 6 laureates of the 2024 session:
- Francisco De Nolasco Santos for his doctoral thesis: Data-driven methodologies for farm-wide fatigue load estimation on offshore wind turbines
- Odeline Dumas for her doctoral thesis: Work-hardening by reorientation induced plasticity in titanium alloys: from a fundamental understanding in Ti-6Al-4V towards new alloy design rules
- Bram Huygens for his doctoral thesis: Modelling dispersion in chromatography: from moment analysis to novel insights
- Leni Jodaitis for his doctoral thesis: Structural and conformational studies of MFS multidrug transporters QacA and LmrP
- Albert Nkwasa for his doctoral thesis:Regional to continental modelling of water quality in Africa: Imprints of global change on river nutrients and sediments
- Arthur Péquin for his doctoral thesis: Direct numerical simulation analysis of the partially stirred reactor model for turbulent reacting flows
Meet the jury
The laureates are selected by a distinguished jury, composed of experts from Syensqo with backgrounds in scientific research and innovation, professors from each university (ULB and VUB), and independent specialists in science & technology:
- Marie-Béatrice Madec, chairwoman of the jury, Head of Marketing - Life Solutions, Syensqo
- Prof. Kristin Bartik, Fellow of the Académie Royale de Belgique, Engineering of Molecular Nanosystems, ULB,
- Prof. Iris De Graeve, Materials and Chemistry, VUB
- Prof. dr. ir. Guy Van Assche, Materials and Chemistry, VUB
- Dr. ir. Kourosch Abbaspour Tehrani, Scientific Director, Innoviris
- Kazuhiko Yokota, Research & Innovation Belgium Director, Syensqo
- Ivan Claeys, Group Engineering & Construction, Head of Process Engineering, Syensqo
- Pierre Barthélémy, Retired, former R&I Director, Cefic
