Congratulations to the prize winners at Ferroelectrics UK and Ireland 2025, sponsored by the materials and nano journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Best oral presentation: sponsored by Materials Horizons
Adrian Savovici, Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials
Adrian Savovici is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials in Düsseldorf, DE. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA working on Order/Disorder phase transformations in ferromagnetic binary alloys. He is primarily interested in solving basic science problems in ferroic materials, with an emphasis on advanced characterization techniques in electron microscopy. His current aim is to further expand the polar metals field.
Best poster: sponsored by Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances
Guilherme Selicani, Technical University of Denmark / University of Bath
Guilherme obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, in mechatronics and mechanical engineering, respectively. He is currently a PhD student at the Technical University of Denmark, focusing on applications of computational modelling of complex-shaped ferroelectric ceramics. He was recently awarded the poster presentation prize from Nanoscale Horizons at the Ferroelectrics UK and Ireland 2025 conference in Bath, UK. This award is sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Best industrially related project: sponsored by Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C
Sakineh Fotouhi, University of the West of England
Dr. Sakineh Fotouhi is currently an assistant professor in Smart Materials and Structures at the University of the West of England Bristol. Before joining UWE Bristol, Sakineh had been working on an ambitious project supported by the US Office of Naval Research, in collaboration at the University of Glasgow as a postdoctoral researcher. The research focuses on the characterisation of piezoelectric materials using AI and a single miniature sample, an approach that addresses a significant challenge in the field. Building on this research, Sakineh has been awarded an EPSRC Impact Acceleration grant to collaborate with CeramTec, a leading global supplier of piezoelectric materials based in Germany. This partnership aims to enhance CeramTec’s characterisation processes using the AI-based method developed during her time at Glasgow. Preliminary findings were presented at the Ferroelectrics UK and Ireland 2025 conference (1–2 May), where the project was awarded the Best Industrially Related Project prize on behalf of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Sakineh is now passionate and focused on expanding her research and strengthening academic and industrial collaborations to support both suppliers and users in the field of piezoelectrics.
