Materials Horizons Blog

We were delighted to support poster prize awards along with RSC Applied Polymers and Polymer Chemistry at the recent GDCh Makro conference in Dresden, Germany which was held from 16 – 18 September 2024. Congratulations to our winners, Annalena Groß and Ronja Bodesheimer. Find out more about them below.

Annalena Groß studied chemistry at the University of Freiburg, Germany, specializing in polymer science. Her master’s thesis focused on the characterization and phase behavior of polystyrene microgels, under the guidance of Prof. Bartsch. Following her graduation, she held a position as a research assistant at NEUSTART KULTUR. Keen to re-enter academic research, Annalena Groß started her PhD in February 2024 in the junior research group of Dr. Céline Calvino at the University of Freiburg. Her work focuses on the development of photo-thermo processes for the reversible crosslinking of polymers. Annalena received a prize for her poster entitled, ‘Exploring the Multiresponsiveness of Quinolinone Motifs for Reversible Polymerizations’

Ronja Bodesheimer received a Bachelor in Science in Applied Chemistry from BTU Cottbus Senftenberg Germany in 2020 with a thesis entitled ‘Synthesis and characterisation of hydrogels with potential anti-biofouling activity’. Ronja then received a Master of Science in chemical engineering from HTW Dresden, Germany in 2021 with the thesis ‘Synthesis and characterisation of amphiphic star-based block copolymers for homogenous connetworks’ before becoming a research associate in the InnoVET project CLOU at HTW Dresden. Since 2022, Ronja is a research associate and PhD student in the InsBIOration project at IPF Dresden and TU Dresden in Germany. Ronja received a prize for their poster entitled, ‘Bio-inspired polymer metallisation with the adhesion promoter dopamine’

Please join us in congratulating our winners!

Copyright: Leibniz-IPF/Emanuel Richter

Materials Horizons were delighted to sponsor two student prizes at the #BIOELCHEM symposium at MATSUS Fall 2023 held in Torremolinos, Spain from 16 – 20 October. Congratulations to Amrita Singh-Morgan (ETH Zurich) for being awarded the best poster presentation prize and Christopher Dreimol (ETH Zurich) for being awarded the best oral presentation. Find out more about our winners below:

Amrita Singh- Morgan

Originally from Leeds, Amrita studied Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh where she had the opportunity to do a year abroad in Switzerland. Persuaded by the alpine landscapes, she decided to do a PhD at ETH Zurich in the group of Prof. Mougel, where she now researches heterogeneous electrocatalysis.  Using CO2 as a chemical feedstock is a promising method to produce valuable chemicals and fuels without fossil or biomass resources. Flue gas, which is formed from the combustion of fossil fuels, constitutes a major localised source from which CO2 could be captured and converted. Amrita’s research involves the electrochemical conversion of CO2 in tandem with another harmful component of flue gas, NOx, to valorise the products formed and maximise the environmental benefit.

Title of her poster: Until NOthing’s Left: Electrochemical Conversion of Nitric Oxide to Ammonia from Dilute Gas Streams

Christopher Dreimol

After completing an apprenticeship in the field of mechanical engineering at Kathrein SE (today Ericsson) in Rosenheim, Christopher Dreimol studied Biomimetics (B.Sc.) in the HS Bremen. He continued with a master’s in production engineering with a focus of material science at the University of Bremen that he finished with a master thesis at ETH Zürich working on bio-inspired materials together with Prof. André R. Studart. Today as a Ph.D. student, Christopher Dreimol works on sustainable wood-based electronics for smart buildings, sensors, soft electronics, and energy storage devices together with Prof. Dr. Ingo Burgert in the Wood Material Science Group at ETH Zürich and EMPA.

Title of his talk: Iron-Catalyzed Laser-Induced Graphitization: A Novel Approach to Produce Sustainable, Bio-Inspired Electrodes with Tunable Iron Phases.

Celebrating the exceptional work published in Materials Horizons

Our annual Outstanding Paper Award celebrates some of the exceptional work published in Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons, and the authors behind those articles. The winners were chosen by the Editorial and Advisory Boards based on the science presented and the work’s potential future impact, from papers published in 2021.

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2021 Outstanding Paper Award and we hope that you enjoy reading their outstanding articles as much as we did.

Materials Horizons Outstanding Article 2021

Biohybrid plants with electronic roots via in-vivo polymerization of conjugated oligomers

Daniela Parker, Yohann Daguerre, Gwennaël Dufil, Daniele Mantione, Eduardo Solano, Eric Cloutet, Georges Hadziioannou, Torgny Näsholm, Magnus Berggren, Eleni Pavlopoulou and Eleni Stavrinidou
Mater. Horiz., 2021, 8, 3295-3305

Materials Horizons Outstanding Article Runner-up 2021

Van der Waals solid solution crystals for highly efficient in-air photon upconversion under subsolar irradiance

Riku Enomoto, Megumi Hoshi, Hironaga Oyama, Hideki Agata, Shinichi Kurokawa, Hitoshi Kuma, Hidehiro Uekusa and Yoichi Murakami
Mater. Horiz., 2021, 8, 3449-3456

Materials Horizons Outstanding Review 2021

Catalytic Methods for Chemical Recycling or Upcycling of Commercial Polymers

Sophia C. Kosloski-Oh, Zachary A. Wood, Yvonne Manjarrez, Juan Pablo de los Rios and Megan E. Fieser
Mater. Horiz., 2021, 8, 1084-1129

Celebrating the exceptional work published in Materials Horizons

Our annual Outstanding Paper Award celebrates some of the exceptional work published in Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons, and the authors behind those articles. The winners were chosen by the Editorial and Advisory Boards based on the science presented and the work’s potential future impact, from papers published in 2020.

Read the Editorial about our winning papers and authors

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2020 Outstanding Paper Award and we hope that you enjoy reading their outstanding articles as much as we did.

Materials Horizons Outstanding Article 2020
An ambient-stable and stretchable ionic skin with multimodal sensation Binbin Ying, Qiyang Wu, Jianyu Li and Xinyu Liu Mater. Horiz., 2020, 7, 477–488
Materials Horizons Outstanding Article runner-up 2020
Stretchable, self-healing and tissue-adhesive zwitterionic hydrogels as strain sensors for wireless monitoring of organ motions Xinjie Pei, Hua Zhang, Yang Zhou, Linjie Zhou and Jun Fu Mater. Horiz., 2020, 7, 1872–1882
Materials Horizons Outstanding Review 2020
Evolution of self-healing elastomers, from extrinsic to combined intrinsic mechanisms: a review Saul Utrera-Barrios, Raquel Verdejo, Miguel A. López-Manchado and Marianella Hernández Santana Mater. Horiz., 2020, 7, 2882–2902

Read more about the prize winners and their research in our Editorial. Our sister journal Nanoscale Horizons has also announced its Outstanding Paper Award winners.  You can read all of the Materials Horizons and Nanoscale Horizons 2020 Outstanding Papers in our joint themed online collection:

Read the collection

With kind regards,

Dr Michaela Mühlberg
Executive Editor, Materials Horizons

Outstanding Reviewers for Materials Horizons in 2019

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Materials Horizons in 2019, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

We would also like to thank the Materials Horizons board and the materials chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

Outstanding paper – Materials Horizons

Bioinspired hierarchical composite design using machine learning: simulation, additive manufacturing, and experiment

Grace X. Gu, Chun-Teh Chen, Deon J. Richmond and Markus J. Buehler, Mater. Horiz., 2018, 5, 939–945, DOI: 10.1039/CiMH00653A

In this outstanding paper, the authors propose an innovative approach to design hierarchical materials using machine learning trained with a database of hundreds of thousands of structures from finite element analysis, together with a self-learning algorithm for discovering high-performing materials where inferior designs are phased out for superior candidates. They say that their new approach can aid in the discovery and fabrication of new material designs with an orders of magnitude increase in computational efficacy over conventional methods.

Runner-up – Materials Horizons

Unidirectional water delivery on a superhydrophilic surface with two-dimensional asymmetrical wettability barriers

Hui Geng, Haoyu Bai, Yangyang Fan, Shaoyu Wang, Teer Ba, Cunming Yu, Moyuan Cao and Lei Jiang, Mater. Horiz., 2018, 5, 303–308, DOI: 10.1039/C7MH01138E

In this outstanding paper, the authors demonstrate unidirectional liquid transport by incorporating asymmetric 2D water barriers into a flat superhydrophilic surface. Their method simplifies the design and fabrication of functional interface materials, enabling manipulation of fluid delivery on 2D patterned surfaces.

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Materials Horizons in 2018, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Professor Antonio di Bartolomeo, Universita degli Studi di Salerno, ORCID: 0000-0002-3629-726X
Professor Dr Stefan Bon, University of Warwick, ORCID: 0000-0001-5156-3901
Professor Jonas Croissant, University of New Mexico, ORCID: 0000-0003-0489-9829
Professor Lorenzo Di Bari, Universita degli Studi di Pisa, ORCID: 0000-0003-2347-2150
Dr Shaolong Gong, Wuhan University, ORCID: 0000-0002-1166-9047
Professor Weida Hu, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, ORCID: 0000-0001-5278-8969
Dr Ville Jokinen, Aalto-yliopisto, ORCID: 0000-0001-6347-7461
Dr Dominik Konkolewicz, Miami University, ORCID: 0000-0002-3828-5481
Dr Igor Perepichka, Bangor University, ORCID: 0000-0001-6672-3103
Dr Michal Piasecki, Uniwersytet Humanistyczno-Przyrodniczy im Jana Dlugosza w Czestochowie, ORCID: 0000-0003-1040-8811

We would also like to thank the Materials Horizons board and the materials community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre