ENI award

The ENI Award
Awarded for Outstanding contributions in field of The New Frontiers in Hydrocarbons (Hydrocarbon award), The Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy (Renewable energy award), The Protection of the Environment (Environment award).
Presented by Eni S.p.A., largest Italian industrial company with a market capitalization of US$138 billion, as of July 24, 2008.
Committee ENI Scientific committee. This committee includes Nobel prize winners and luminous personalities from Stanford University, MIT, Cambridge, University of Stuttgart, Florida State University, Università di Pisa - Pisa, Università del Texas - Austin, etc.

The ENI Award is a prize awarded by the Italian oil and gas company ENI with the aim of encouraging better use of energy sources and increased environmental research. The strict award guidelines and the notable names on the selection committee (including Nobel laureates) make ENI a coveted award. List of ENI award winners include Nobel laureates like Harold W. Kroto and Alan Heeger.

Some websites and magazines have called the ENI award the "Nobel prize of energy research".[1] The scientific committee of the ENI award includes representatives from Stanford University, MIT, Cambridge, University of Stuttgart, Florida State University, University of Pisa, University of Texas at Austin, and others. The annual ENI award was launched in July 2007, foreseen by the group’s Technological Master Plan. The ENI award extends and replaces the Eni-Italgas Prize, previously known as the Italgas Prize, which in 2006 had reached its XIX edition.

Award selection

The award’s Scientific Committee – which has the role of evaluating the candidates and assigning the prizes, is of the highest level and comprises researchers and scientists from some of the world’s most advanced research institutes, and includes the Nobel prize-winner Sir Harold Kroto.

In subsequent years 63 researchers, from 10 countries, have been awarded: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America. Included in the number are three Nobel prize-winners. More than 800 researchers from around the world have submitted their research projects, to which should be added the numerous personalities who have guaranteed or been a part of the various evaluation commissions.[2]

The distinguished representatives of the international scientific community who have received the ENI award in the past include Sir Harold W. Kroto, Nobel Prize winner in 1996 for Chemistry and now member of the Eni Award Scientific Commission; Alan Hegger, Nobel Prize 2000 for Chemistry; and Theodor Wolfgang Haensch, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Physics.

2008 recipients

The Research and Environment prize was awarded to the American scientist J. Craig Venter, one of the most important living geneticists who, in 2000, announced that he was the first to have complete a map of the human genome. The prize was awarded for late 2007 research paper, published in the journal Science, in which he created a synthetic chromosome in the laboratory while working on the DNA of bacteria. Venter's results are a fundamental step towards synthetic genes, which promise an unlimited range of revolutionary applications in the energy and environmental fields, such as new processes for the sequestration of CO2 or the regeneration of polluted environments. In terms of energy, this research opens the road to the design of new metabolic paths for the production of innovative biofuels from organic materials.

The Science and Technology prize was awarded ex aequo to Arthur J. Nozik (U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Laboratory in Golden, Colorado) and Stefan W. Glunz (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany), both active in the field of the conversion of solar energy using photovoltaic technology.

The two Research Debut prizes have been awarded to the young researchers Silvia Cereda (Università di Milano Bicocca) and Gian Luca Chiarello (Università degli Studi di Milano) for research that promises interesting developments in the field of energy production.

Craig Venter

J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his invaluable contributions in genomic research. He is one of the most frequently cited scientists in North America. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit, research and support organization dedicated to researching human, microbial, plant and environmental genomics, exploring social and ethical issues in genomics, and seeking alternative energy solutions through genomics. The J. Craig Venter Institute has two divisions: the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), founded by Dr. Venter in 1992; and the Center for the Advancement of Genomics.

Dr. Venter began his formal education after a tour of duty as a Navy Corpsman in Danang, Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. After earning both a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California at San Diego, he was appointed professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In 1984, he moved to the National Institutes of Health campus where he pioneered a revolutionary new strategy for rapid gene discovery. At TIGR, Venter and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, using his new whole genome shotgun technique. TIGR has sequenced more than 50 genomes to date using Dr. Venter's techniques.

In 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics to sequence the human genome. The successful completion of this research culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal Science. He and his team at Celera also sequenced the fruit fly, mouse and rat genomes. Dr. Venter and his team at the Venter Institute continue to do genomics research and have published several important papers covering such areas as environmental genomics, synthetic genomics and the sequence and analysis of the dog genome.

Dr. Venter is the author of more than 200 research articles and is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, public honors, and scientific awards. These include the 2001 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize and the 2002 Gairdner Foundation International Award. Dr. Venter is a member of numerous scientific organizations including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society for Microbiology. In 2004 Dr. Venter was one of the first 38 people to be selected by Desmond Tutu’s Foundation for Peace as part of the 'Hands that Shape Humanity' world exhibition.

Arthur J. Nozik

Dr. Arthur J. Nozik is a Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Professor Adjoint in the Chemistry Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his BChE from Cornell University in 1959 and his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Yale University in 1967. Before joining NREL in 1978, then known as the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), he conducted research at the Allied Chemical Corporation and American Cyanamid Corporation.

Dr. Nozik's research interests include size quantization effects in semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wells, the applications of these nanostructures to solar photon conversion, photogenerated carrier relaxation dynamics in semiconductor structures, photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor molecule interfaces, photoelectrochemical energy conversion, photocatalysis, and the optical, magnetic and electrical properties of solids. He has published over 160 papers and book chapters in these fields, and holds 11 U.S. patents. He has served on numerous scientific review and advisory panels and received several awards in solar energy research.

Dr. Nozik has been a Senior Editor of The Journal of Physical Chemistry since 1993. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Chemical Society, the Electrochemical Society, the Materials Research Society, and the Society of Photo Optical Instrument Engineers.

Stefan W. Glunz

Professor Glunz is head of the Department of Silicon Solar Cells – Development and Characterization at Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg, Germany. Stefan Glunz received his degree in Physics at the Albert-Ludvigs-Universitat in Freiburg 1991 and in 1995 he received his PhD Thesis in silicon solar cells after researching at the Fraunhofer ISE. His group concentrates on new technologies such as metallization and laser-chemical processing techniques in silicon solar cell production and research. Among other achievements, his group holds the internationally acknowledged world record for the conversion efficiency of multicrystalline silicon solar cells (20%). A crucial part of his work involves close cooperation with the photovoltaics industry to put new technologies into production. Stefan Glunz’s high-efficiency solar cell group consists technicians, engineers and academics.

Prof. Glunz is the author or co-author of over 130 conferences and 40 journal publications on high-efficiency silicon solar cells. He is also an editor for several high standard scientific journals such as the journal of Applied Physics, Progress in Photovoltaics, and Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, and is a member of scientific committees and the chairman of numerous international photovoltaic conferences.

2009 recipients

The New Frontiers in Hydrocarbons award was assigned "ex aequo" to Alan G. Marshall (USA) and Tony Settari (Canada). It is awarded for research into the exploration, advanced recovery, development, refinement, transportation and distribution of oil and natural gas.

The Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy award was given to Martin Green. It is presented for advanced R&D results in renewable and non-conventional energy sources.

The Protection of the Environment award was awarded to Gérard Férey. It is presented for outstanding research and innovation in areas concerning the environmental impact of human activities, specifically protection and restoration of the environment, with a special focus on research and innovative technologies to eliminate local pollutants and CO2 to improve environmental conditions.

The two Research Debut awards, given to young scholars to promote research in Italy, have been assigned to Alberto Cuoci and Loredana De Rogatis. They cover the same areas as the three international awards: research and technological innovation in hydrocarbons, renewable and non-conventional energy, and protection and restoration of the environment.

Alan G. Marshall

Professor Marshall has been directing the ICR Program since 1993 within the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. The research centre, with its headquarters in Tallahassee at the Florida State University, was built in 1994 with a National Science Foundation loan and is part of a consortium led by the university itself. The Laboratory hosts numerous visiting scientists from different fields and gives them access to the extremely powerful magnetic fields that are generated there. It is the largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory in the world. With these high output magnets Alan G. Marshall, co-invented the technique known as the Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR), a high resolution method for the accurate determination of mass. Thanks to the high resolution techniques created by the group to identify the molecular components of complex chemical compounds such as blood or oil, they have been able to obtain detailed pictures which enable scientists to understand and predict with accuracy the reactions and properties of these complex compounds.

Marshall graduated in 1965 with a degree in Chemistry from Northwestern University and earned his PhD in Physic Chemistry in 1970. He began his academic career at University of British Columbia and Ohio State University, then moved to Florida State University in 1993.

Alan Marshall has written 469 scientific publications, holds numerous patents as a result of his research, and received many recognitions from universities and important institutes such as the American Institute of Chemists and the American Chemical Society. He is a member of several scientific committees and has also been on the board of many specialized magazines.

Tony Settari

Tony Settari is an expert in reservoir engineering and computerized simulations of oil reservoirs, as well as in geochemical processes and basin fracture analysis. In the past 35 years Professor Settari has been involved in numerous engineering studies on petroleum recovery as well as in the development of several projects for the R&S and software for this purpose.

Professor Settari graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1965 from the Technical University of Brno, and went on to get his PhD in Hydrocarbon Engineering Research from the University of Calgary where he still teaches and conducts research (he holds the Encana/Petroleum Society of CIM Endowed Chair in petroleum engineering). He boasts almost 40 years of experience working with private businesses in the petroleum extraction sector, both as a consultant as well as through research and consulting companies that he has started through the years.

In 1978 he started a pioneer project based on the use of modelling in hydraulic fracturing, and in 1984 he focused his attention on a project aimed at investigating complex intercurrent processes in the in-situ thermal recovery of bituminous sand. His current research interests focus on the geomechanical and fracture aspects of oil basins and on production by means of coupled simulation.

Tony Settari has written over 120 articles on oil basin engineering, simulation, geomechanics, hydraulic fracturing and other relevant issues. During his career he has received several nominations such as the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Distinguished Lecturer (he then became Distinguished Member in 2003). In 2008 SPE also awarded him with the Anthony B. Lucas Gold Medal. He is also a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining and APEGGA.

Martin Green

Martin Green has held the position of inaugural Australian Federation fellow and Scientia Professor at New South Wales University in Sydney since 1999. He is also the executive director of research at the Australian Research Council Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence and the research director of the CSG Solar company.[3]

Martin Green graduated in engineering from Queensland University in 1970 and received his master's degree in 1971. He then went on to study at McMaster University, where he obtained his PhD in Solar Energy Research, gradually becoming a noted person in the field. He has been awarded numerous scientific prizes such as the 1999 Australia Prize and the Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Award assigned by the Delaware University in 2003 for his innovative studies on solar cells.

In 1999 Green was elected a member of the Australian Academy of Science. He is also a member of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering as well as of the Institute of Electronic Engineers. Between 1977 and 1984 he has been a visiting professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, a visiting consultant at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Colorado and a visiting professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China.

He has written over 300 articles that have been published in specialized magazines such as Solid-State Electronics, Nature, and Advanced Solar Energy Conversion. With his research group he has focused on the study of solar cell efficiency limiting factors, and is credited for having improved silicon cell performance by 25%. With his ongoing research, Green thus contributes to performance improvement and to a likely increased use of solar energy.

Gérard Férey

Professor Gérard Férey is an international expert on porous solids, on which he has had published over 450 articles in specialized magazines such as the Journal of Solid State Chemistry, Solid State Sciences, Chemistry of Materials, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Science.

His research group, based at the Institut Lavoisier of the University of Versailles where Ferey is a professor, is formed by a few young researchers and is assisted by researchers and engineers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Their research is focused on inorganic and hybrid porous solids with microscopical holes (MOFs) which are particularly useful in the petrochemistry, catalysis, gas separation and fine chemistry fields. This field of research is becoming increasingly relevant due to the importance of these materials in hydrogen and CO2 storage as well as in the production of electrode materials because of their combination of inorganic (metal ions) and organic components (mostly stiff organic molecules that make up 1-, 2- or 3-dimensional porous structures).

Professor Ferey owns patents for his research and has received many important scientific recognitions, such as his admission to the Académie des sciences de l'Institut de France in 2003, his Royal Society of Chemistry Fellowship in 2005 and the Gay-Lussac-Humboldt Award presented to him by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He has been and still is on the advisory board of several scientific magazines (Inorganic Chemistry, the Journal of Solid State Chemistry, Chemistry of Materials). Between 1988 and 1992 he was the deputy director of the CNRS Chemistry Department, and is now the president of the National Committee of Chemistry.

2010 recipients

Prizes awarded in 2010 include:[4]

The New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Prize was assigned "ex aequo" to Avelino Corma, The Instituto De tecnologia Quimica Upv-Csic (Valencia), for his important discoveries about the synthesis of new catalysts to improve the refinement of the heaviest oil fractions and to Mark Knackstedt, Australian National University (Canberra), for his pioneering research into the location and characteristics of oil-fields, grounded on high resolution and 3D images of rock structures.

The Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy Prize was assigned to Angela Belcher, MIT (Boston), for her innovative and fundamental research project on the principles of development of the natural systems that can reconvert and use energy.

The Protection of the Environment Prize was awarded to François Morel, Princeton University, for his important discovery of a new class of enzymes that plays a crucial role in CO2 transport and fixation.

The Debut in Research Prizes were awarded to

Avelino Corma

Avelino Corma is research professor and director of the ITQ at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia since 1990. His current research field are structured nanomaterials and molecular sieves as catalysts, covering aspects of synthesis, characterization, and reactivity in acid-base and redox catalysis.

Professor Corma studied chemistry at the University of Valencia, where he obtained his BA in 1973 and later, in 1976, he then obtained the Ph.D. “with honours” at the Chemical Engineering Department from the University Complutense of Madrid. In 1979 he became associate researcher at the Institute of Catalysis in Madrid after two years of postdoctoral work at the Chemical Engineering Department of Queen’s University in Canada with Professor B. W. Wojciechowski, and in 1987 was appointed research professor.

He has been collaborating for research projects with many important companies who deal with catalysis, such as Shell, BP-Amoco, ExxonMobil, Total, Elf, Repsol, and Enichem, among the others. Thanks to his important research work Professor Corma is also member of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain, of the Academia Europaea, and of the National Academy of Engineering USA. He is fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry and member of the scientific boards of numerous institutions and prestigious journals, such as the Max-Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung (Germany), BP, the Journal of Catalysis, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, Catalysis Letters, Japanese Catalysis Surveys, Catalysis Reviews: Science and Engineering, the Journal of Molecular Catalysis and the Journal of Physical Chemistry. He is also Scientific Advisor for BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Rhodia, Albemarle, Sumitomo, Sasol, CEPSA, Conoco-Phillips.

He has written about 800 articles on these subjects in international journals, three books, and a number of reviews and book chapters. He is co-author of more than 100 patents; 11 of them have been commercialized.

Professor Corma’s work allowed him to be awarded with numerous prizes, including the DuPont Award on New Materials, the Spanish National Award on Science and Technology, the F.G. Ciapetta and E.J. Houdry Awards of The North American Catalysis Society, the Gabor A. Somorjai Award from the American Chemical Society, the François Gault Award of the European Federation of Catalysis Societies. He is Doctor Honoris Causa of the Utrecht University, Technical University of Munich, UNED from Madrid, Jaime I University and Universitat of Valencia.

Mark Knackstedt

Knackstedt was awarded a BSc from Columbia University in Chemical Engineering (1985) and obtained a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Rice University in 1990. From 1990 been resident at the Department of Applied Mathematics at Australian National University (ANU); since 2005 he has been professor of applied mathematics at ANU and visiting professor at the School of Petroleum Engineering at University of NSW (UNSW).

With his research group he has led a significant “Digital Materials” research effort (>25 staff & students) which has pioneered the study of real-world materials in three-dimensions via a two-pronged approach: sophisticated structural measurements with state-of-the-art tomographic and microscopy methods coupled with sophisticated image analysis and numerical modeling tools. This combined development allows for a new numerical laboratory approach to the study of complex disordered materials. Numerical measurements performed directly on images can in some cases be performed with similar accuracy and considerably reduced complexity and cost than corresponding laboratory measurements.

This development provides petroleum engineers and geoscientists with a new image-based core analysis technology which can enhance conventional core analysis techniques and allows analysis of unconsolidated cores, sidewall cores and drill cuttings which are not suitable for conventional laboratory measurement. The importance to the industry is illustrated by the membership of an ANU/UNSW research sponsorship by leading oil and gas industry companies including Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Total. He is CTO of Digital Core, a private company set up to offer this advanced technology to industry at large.

Knackstedt was awarded the George C. Matson Award by the AAPG in 2009 and is a current (2009–2010) and past (2006–2008) Society Distinguished Speaker of the SPWLA. The groups work has been awarded Best Paper at the 2004 Annual Symposium of the SPWLA and Best Paper at the 2008 Society of Core Analysts meeting. Ongoing research of the group includes further development and integration of experimental 3D imaging techniques and studies of the role of surface and colloid chemistry phenomena underlying oil recovery.

Angela M. Belcher

Angela Belcher holds a BA in Creative Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1991), and in 1997 she received a PhD in Chemistry from the same University. Before joining the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002, she has been a member of the faculty of the University of Texas, Austin, from 1999 to 2002.

Dr. Belcher is now the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering at MIT; she is a materials chemist with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid state chemistry. The focus of Prof. Belcher’s research is understanding and using the process by which nature makes materials in order to design novel hybrid organic-inorganic electronic and magnetic materials on new length scales. Her research is very interdisciplinary in nature and brings together the fields of inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology and electrical engineering.

Her researches in new materials have applications in many fields such as solar cells, batteries, catalysts, medical diagnostics and basic single molecule interactions related to disease.

Thanks to her innovative researches she has received many awards including, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (2000), the Du Pont Young Investigators Award (1999) and the MacArthur Fellowship Award in 2004. Her research was covered in a July 2001 Forbes magazine cover story on nanotechnology and in 2007 Time Magazine has defined her as a “Climate-change hero”.

François Morel

François Morel is the Albert G. Blanke, Jr. Professor of Geosciences at Princeton University. Before joining the Princeton faculty in 1994, he served for many years as professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor Morel received his Licence-ès-Sciences (BS) in Applied Mathematics at the University of Grenoble, where he also obtained the Diplôme d’Ingénieur in 1967. A few years later, in 1971, he earned a PhD in Engineering Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Author of more than 150 articles, several books and book chapters, his research interests lie in theoretical, laboratory and field investigations of: coordination chemistry, surface chemistry and photochemistry of trace elements in natural waters; interactions between the chemistry and microbiota in aquatic systems; Oceanic primary production and Biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and bioactive trace elements.

His academic career is covered by several important recognitions: from 1998 to 2006 he was director of the Princeton Environmental Institute, and from 1991 to 1994 director of the R. M. Parsons Laboratory at MIT. He has been awarded the C.C. Patterson Medal of the Geochemical Society in 2001, the Maurice Ewing Medal of the American Geophysical Union in 2005, as well as the Urey Medal, from the European Association for Geochemistry in 2009, and was elected to the U.S National Academy of Sciences in 2009.

François Morel has been visiting professor in many universities like the Ecole Normale Supèrieure - Paris, the Université Piere et Marie Curie - Paris VI, Université Louis Pasteur – Strasbourg and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. His research work has been highly appreciated both in the public and in the private sector: he has been member of several panels of the National Research Council, the National Advisory Committee for Oceans and Atmosphere and the Conseil Scientifique of the Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques among others. Finally he is a member of several professional societies, including the American Geophysical Union, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Chemical Society and the Geochemical Society.

2011 recipients

The 2011 Edition of the Eni Award was divided into three main Prizes and two Debut in research Prizes:

As during the 2010 Edition, the New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Prize was shared ex aequo between two outstanding scientists, Professor Gabor A. Somorjai from University of California and Professor Martin Landrø from Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Professor Somorjai won the Prize for his excellent work on the cracking process, while professor Landrø was awarded for his advanced "4D" seismic analysis technique. This was the last year, for the Eni Award, of a single New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Prize: the following 2012 Edition presented two different Prizes, aimed to the Downstream and Upstream sectors.

The Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy Prize was given to Professor Gregory Stephanopoulos from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his research on the bacterial genetic structure, with the aim of converting raw materials into hydrocarbons.

The Protection of the Environment Prize was assigned to Professor Jean-Marie Tarascon from the University of Picardie "Jules Verne", for his outstanding research in the lithium-ion battery sector, aimed to produce safer batteries with lower costs and environmental impact.

The two Debut in Research Prizes were awarded to Dr. Simone Gamba from the Politecnico di Milano, for his PhD Thesis on the hydrocracking process, and to Dr. Fabrizio Frontalini from the University of Urbino "Carlo Bo", for his PhD Thesis concerning the use of benthic foraminifera as biomarkers for the monitoring of pollution.

Gabor A. Somorjai

{{copypaste=http://www.eni.com/eni-award/eng/vincitore_2011_gabor_somorjai.shtml}} Gabor A. Somorjai is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was born in Budapest in 1935. In 1957, while being a 4th year chemical engineering student at the Technical University, he had to flee abroad after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution. He pursued his studies overseas and received a PhD in physical chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, in 1960; two years later, he received the United States citizenship. After a few years working with IBM in Yorktown Heights, New York, he began his academic career in Berkeley in 1964, where he was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry and received tenure three years later. He was appointed full professor in 1972 and university professor in 2001 (the highest honour for a faculty within the UC System); Professor Somorjai has trained more than 130 PhD students and 200 post-doctoral fellows. He has published four books and almost 1100 scientific papers.

Professor Somorjai’s research has been focused on exploring and understanding catalytic selectivity of transition metal surfaces on the molecular level. His novel approach is to use model systems, monodispersed nanoparticles in the 1–10 nm range, to explore hydrocarbon conversion reactions. An important discovery from these studies is that the size and shape of metal nanoparticles control both reaction rates and selectivities. He developed surface-sensitive instruments that have permitted molecular level studies of the catalysts under reaction conditions at high pressures. Before the advent of these applications most catalysts were characterized only before and after the reactions. Somorjai has helped catalytic chemistry in its epoch-making transition from the macroscopic view to molecular-scale analysis.

This outstanding career has been recognized from many institutions. He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1979, he was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1982 and elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1983. The international academic world has attributed him with several honours: he received an honorary doctorate in 1989 from the Technical University of Budapest, from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris (1990), from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (1992) and from Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy in 1998.

Professor Somorjai won many prizes, among them the Adamson Award in Surface Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 1994, the Van Hippel Award from the Materials Research Society in 1997, the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1998 (together with professor Gerhard Ertl). In 2002 he received the National Medal of Science, and in 2008 the Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society (the highest honor bestowed an American chemist). Gabor Somorjai received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences in 2011.

Gabor A. Somorjai, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, led fundamental researches on catalysis, focusing above all on the preparation and characterization of supported metal catalysts. He realized very outstanding studies, concerning the relations between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, in particular on the reactions of cyclization and hydroformylation. During his last researches, Professor Somorjai developed new catalysts, based on nanostructured supported metal systems, able to provide excellent performances and stabilities, also at high pressures.

Because of these highly innovative studies, used in oil cracking processes (a key technology, aimed to grant the return and the quality of fuels), the Eni Award Scientific Commission conferred the "New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Prize" to Professor Gabor A. Somorjai, ex aequo with Professor Martin Landrø.

Martin Landrø

Martin Landrø is Professor of Applied Geophysics at the Department of Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

His research interests concern geophysics, focusing on the fluid and pressure prediction from seismic data; he also deepened other geophysical aspects, like seismic inversion, electromagnetic and gravimetric reservoir monitoring. Above all, Professor Landrø concretely helped the development of the four-dimensional seismology, using this subtle proceeding to analyse and predict the amount of oil and gas. The 4-D seismic technique adds to the three-dimensional survey a fourth point of view, time, providing a detailed description of the presence of water and oil in the reservoir. Since 1996, he has been one of the first scientists involved in the application of 4-D seismic technology.

The scientific career of Professor Landrø began in 1986, with the SERES project. In 1989 he became member of SINTEF Petroleum, until 1993, while from 1996 to 1998 he worked as researcher for Statoil. From 1993 to 1996 he was appointed Section Manager for SINTEF Petroleum, while from 2000 to 2003 he was the Coordinator of the European ATLASS (Analysis of Time LapSe Seismic data) Project, aimed to the reduction of wells in hydrocarbon reservoirs, to improve the quantitative interpretation tools for time lapse seismic data and to estimate volumes of bypassed oil and gas.

Several oil companies, like Shell, Statoil, Norsk Hydro and Eni-Agip took part to this challenging program. He spent the academic year 2005–2006 in the United States, working as visiting professor at the Colorado School of Mines; during his tenure, Professor Landrø trained more than 60 diploma students and several PhD students. He acts as Project Leader of a strategic programme, sponsored by the Research Council of Norway, aimed to combine seismic and rock physics. The relevance of this scientific and professional career was underlined in 1997, when he was selected Distinguished Lecturer by the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE), and in 2001, when Professor Landrø received the best paper award in Geophysics from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG).

In 2000, EAGE also honoured his research with the prestigious Petroleum Geoscience Award for Best Paper. Martin Landrø was elected Esso Distinguished Lecturer in 2003 and received the Norwegian Geophysical Award in 2004. Martin Landrø, Professor of Applied Geophysics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, led important researches concerning the development and applications of 4D seismic modelling (time lapse seismic). This technology is based on the interpretation of pressure changes and fluid distribution during the exploitation of the reservoirs. The 4D seismic revealed a great effectiveness in the identification of the best drilling places and in characterization of the changes experienced during the years by oil and gas basins. The application of Professor Landrø's technology permits to increase significantly the factor of hydrocarbons recovery, as proven by the decisive contribution offered to the development of several projects concerning the production areas of the North Sea. For this reason, the Eni Award Scientific Commission conferred the "New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Prize" to Professor Martin Landrø, ex aequo with Professor Gabor A. Somorjai.

Gregory Stephanopoulos

Gregory Stephanopoulos was born in Kalamata, Greece, in 1950. At present, he is the W. H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

After attending to National Technical University of Athens, where in 1973 he achieved his Diploma of Chemical Engineering, he continued his studies in the United States. In 1975 he obtained his M.S. from the University of Florida and, three years later, his PhD degree from the University of Minnesota. His professional career started in 1978 as assistant professor at the Caltech, while in 1984 he became associate professor. Since 1985, Gregory Stephanopoulos has been a professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: he was the Bayer Professor from 2000 to 2006, when he was appointed to the W. H. Dow Professorship.

From 1990 to 1997 he served as associate director of the Biotechnology Center at MIT. Since 1997, he also worked as lecturer on surgery and bioengineering for Harvard University, while he spent the academic year 2006–2007 as visiting professor at the ETH Zurich.

The professional career of Professor Stephanopoulos is underscored by his prolific scientific production: he is the co-author of a book and the editor of five other titles, while he wrote or co-authored about 340 papers and 40 patents. During his tenure, he trained and supervised more than 120 graduate and Post-Doc students; he collaborated with many scientific journals as a member of their Editorial Boards, like Mathematical Biosciences (1984–1998), Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering (2000–2005). He serves on the editorial boards of 12 scientific journals such as the Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the Journal of Biotechnology and Trends in Biotechnology. Since 2003, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of Metabolic Engineering and since 2010, co-Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Biotechnology.

The importance of his outstanding research was highlighted in 26 named Lectureships. In 1991, he was appointed Merck Lecturer, in 1996, Inaugural Bayer Lecturer from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2002, the University of Minnesota nominated Professor Stephanopoulos as the inaugural A. G. Fredrickson Lecturer, while in 2003 the Purdue University acclaimed him the Kelly Lecturer, the University of Colorado the Patten Distinguished Lecturer, and, in 2004, the Georgia Institute of Technology appointed him the Cary Lecturer. In 2005 he gave the Mccabe Lecture at NC State University and in 2008 the inaugural Founders Lectureship at UCLA. In 2010, he became the Pigford Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Delaware.

During the years, Professor Stephanopoulos received many honors. Among others, in 1973 he received the CHRISOVERGION Award from the Athens Polytechnic, in 1984 the Presidential Young Investigator Award, in 2001 the Marvin J. Johnson Award from the American Chemical Society. In 2007, he received the Charles Thom Award from the Society for Industrial Microbiology, in 2009 the Amgen Award in Biochemical Engineering and, in 2009, the Aristoteles Award for Excellence in Biosciences Research. In 2010 he received the George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology while, in the same year, the ACS tributed him the E. V. Murphree Award. Gregory Stephanopoulos was elected member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2003, while in 2005 he was nominated Doctor technices honoris causa from the Technical University of Denmark. In the same year, he became a fellow of the AAAS. He has also received the following awards from the American Institute of Chemical engineers (AIChE): the FPBE Division Award (1997), the R.H. Wilhelm Award (2001) and the Founders award in 2007. Professor Stephanopoulos works in Cambridge, at the Department of Chemical Engineering, focusing on biotechnology and bioinformatics, on metabolic and biochemical engineering. He is the director of the Bioinformatics & Metabolic Engineering Laboratory at MIT. His group of 25 graduate students and post-docs conducts research on inverse metabolic engineering, flux determination, metabolomics, systems biology and metabolic engineering of E. Coli for the production of fuels biochemicals.

Jean-Marie Tarascon

Jean-Marie Tarascon was born in 1953 in France. He is a high merit professor of chemistry at the University of Picardie "Jules Verne" in Amiens, holding in parallel the 2010–2011 chair on “sustainable energy-society and environment” at the College de France in Paris. He works for the Laboratoire de Réactivité et Chimie des Solides (LRCS), where he created both the Institute of Chemistry of Picardie and the European network of excellence ALISTORE-ERI. He headed both of them till the end of 2010 prior to becoming in charge of the French scientific and technology network on electrochemical energy storage network (RS2E) and taking over the directorship of the new LABEX “STORE-EX” involving seven French laboratories. An outstanding chemist, Jean-Marie Tarascon is involved in materials chemistry, mainly related to innovative energy-storage applications; he gave a significant contribution to the research on superconductivity.

His academic career began in 1977, after the Master of Science in Chemical Engineering at the Université de Bordeaux. Two years later, he obtained his Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Générales in Physics and Chemistry while, in 1981, he defended his PhD thesis in Solid State Chemistry at the Université de Bordeaux. After his degree, he joined the Cornell University as post-doctoral researcher, before entering the Bell Laboratories and, after that, Bellcore. During this first part of his scientific career, Professor Tarascon investigated the new high temperature superconducting materials, trying to improve the energy transport with less loss.

In the Nineties, Jean-Marie Tarascon became the leader of the Energy-Storage Group at Bellcore, focusing on the Li-ion battery technology in 1991. That year saw an important turning point in his career: he started focusing on new electrodes and polymers, as well as on sustainable synthesis and structure determination of functional nanomaterials. We owe him and his colleagues the plastic Li-ion battery which has been commercialized. In 1994 he was appointed Bellcore Fellow. In 1995 he left Bellcore to join the University of Picardie, leading the Laboratoire de Réactivité et Chimie des Solides till the end of 2008. Professor Tarascon, Director of LRCS, continues his research on the Li-ion batteries, developing new negative and positive electrodes, organic electrodes for sustainable Li-ion battery and new eco-efficient synthesis processes of cathode materials.

During his life, he received many honours; among them, in 2010, the Japan Materials NIMS Award; in 2009, the prestigious Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur, and the Cheetham Lecture Award from the Materials Research Laboratory of the University of California. He also won the 2004 ISI Award and, in 2002, the European Section Alessandro Volta Medal from the Electrochemical Society.

The relevance of his scientific and professional work is also underlined by the wide amount of appointments and fellowships. For example, Jean-Marie Tarascon was proclaimed in 1999 corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences and member of the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in 2001, while in 2002 he was nominated at the Institut Universitaire de France. In November 2004, he became a permanent member of the French Academy of Sciences and, in 2010 he was appointed Energy Chair of the Collège de France.

Author of more than 500 scientific papers, Professor Tarascon also detains about 75 patents in France and in the United States. He combines his research activities with the academic tenure at the University of Picardie. He also worked at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as visiting professor.

Jean-Marie Tarascon, professor and director of the Institut de Chimie de l’Université de Picardie Jules Verne, highlighted his scientific career with fundamental researches concerning the electric Li-ion batteries. In particular, his awarded candidature refers to the design of electrodes based on new materials, some of which organic ones, and to the elaboration of new processes for development of more efficient and safer Li-ion batteries. The availability of high-performance and low-cost batteries represents a decisive point for a wide diffusion of electric devices, not directly connected to the net. These devices will have an important spin-off on the electric vehicle field in the mobility system, with obvious environmental benefits. For these reasons, the Scientific Commission of the Eni Award bestowed the "Protection of the Environment Prize" to Professor Jean-Marie Tarascon.

Simone Gamba

Simone Gamba was born in 1982. In 2004 he graduated cum laude in Chemical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, where, in 2006, he also concluded his graduate studies with a cum laude grade in Chemical Engineering. In February 2010, Simone Gamba defended his PhD Thesis, entitled Kinetic Modeling and Thermodynamic Analysis of the Fischer-Tropsch Wax Hydrocracking Process. This Thesis, developed at the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta" of the Politecnico di Milano under the supervision of Professor Laura Pellegrini, received a summa cum laude grade; during his PhD studies, he spent several months at Rutgers University (The State University of New Jersey) with the research group of Professor Michael T. Klein, focusing on the automated generation of complex reaction networks.

He collaborated with Professor Laura Pellegrini and Engineer Giorgio Soave on the improvement of thermodynamic models for vapor-liquid equilibrium prediction and energy saving in chemical industries. At present, Simone Gamba holds a research grant at the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta" of the Politecnico di Milano for working on the Acidic gases: methods for purification and thermodynamic characterization Program. Since the academic year 2006–2007, he has also been assisting the tenure of courses in the field of the Unit Operations for Chemical Plants at the Third School of Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano. In the end, Simone Gamba acts as Co-Advisor for Master of Science Theses in Chemical Engineering.

His research interests focus on kinetic modeling, in particular on the catalytic hydrocracking of hydrocarbons, on chemical plants and thermodynamics.

During his scientific career, Simone Gamba was recognized as Best Student in Chemical Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano in the academic year 2003–2004. First author and co-author of various papers, published on international scientific journals, he is a peer reviewer for Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research and for The Journal of Physical Chemistry. Simone Gamba, Research Grant at the "Giulio Natta" Department of Chemistry of the Politecnico di Milano, developed during his PhD course a promising research, concerning the interpretation and modelling of the hydrocarbons hydrocracking process, obtained with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. This research underlines an interesting way to produce high quality fuels and lubricants, from synthetic gas. For these reasons the Scientific Commission conferred to Simone Gamba the "Debut in Research Prize".

Fabrizio Frontalini

Fabrizio Frontalini was born in Osimo on 10 September 1980. He is a post-doctoral researcher at the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, della Vita e dell'Ambiente, University of Urbino.

In 2004, he received his bachelor's degree in environmental science at the University of Urbino with 110/110 summa cum laude. His graduation thesis was entitled “Environmental features of Cogeneration”. In 2006, he received the degree in Environmental Science, Environmental Impact Assessment, with 110/110 summa cum laude. His graduation thesis was entitled “Benthic foraminifera as heavy metal pollution bioindicators: A case study from the central Adriatic Sea coast of Italy”.

In 2010, Dr. Frontalini earned his PhD degree under the supervision of Professor Rodolfo Coccioni with a thesis regarding the use of benthic foraminifera as pollution bioindicators in marine and transitional marine environments within the “FORAMLAG” project.

He has been working since 2009 as research grant on Foraminifera for Environmental and Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction. Dr. Frontalini has focused on the influence of water masses within the Marmara Sea on the foraminiferal assemblages. Dr. Frontalini’s research aims at documenting the environmental changes induced by short-term warming event punctuating the early Paleogene. During his career as a young scientist, dr. Frontalini received several recognitions. In 2008, he was awarded from the European Science Foundation, while during the same year he obtained the Stanislaw Geroch Memorial Grant in Aid from the Grzybowski Foundation. In 2009, Fabrizio Frontalini won the Brian O'Neill Award from the Grzybowski Foundation and, in 2010, the Maria Umberta Corrado Delmonte Award from the Italian Society of Protistologists. Dr. Frontalini is member of the Geobiology Center in Urbino University, member of the Working Italian Group on Environmental Micropaleontology and of the International PALIS (Paleogene Integrated Stratigraphy) Project. Since 2009 he has been also member of the Grzybowski Foundation, of the Cushman Foundation and of the Micropaleontological Society. In 2010, he became member of the Italian Society of Protistologists and of the Associazione Italiana Geologia Medica, while in 2011 he joined the Italian Society of Protistologists.

He frequently visits the University College of London (UK), and was invited to the National Oceanographic Center in Southampton (UK) and University of the Sinos Valley (Brazil) to hold lectures. Since 2008, he is co-organizer and lecturer at the International School on Foraminifera, which is regarded as an international network of excellence in the field of foraminifera.

Fabrizio Frontalini comes from the Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo, dell'Ambiente e della Natura at the Università di Urbino. During his doctorate, he contributed to a research concerning the benthic foraminifera, amoeboid protozoan widely diffused in marine environment, whose sensitivity to the environmental changes could be used as bioindicator of contaminants in sea and coastal areas. This research also concerned lagoon environments, contaminated by industrial metal wastes. For these reasons the Scientific Commission conferred to Fabrizio Frontalini the "Debut in Research Prize".

2012 recipients

The 2012 Edition of the Eni Award was divided into three main Prizes and two Debut in research Prizes:

Fabio Rocca

Fabio Rocca received the Eni award for "new frontiers of hydrocarbons" for a new "methodology [that] may be able to improve the exploitation of the reserves, identifying the most promising areas for possible optimisation, providing more oil for the same work, always in full compliance with safety and environmental standards." He is currently a professor emeritus of telecommunications at the Politecnico di Milano.[5]

Alessandro Ferretti

Alessandro Ferretti received the Eni award for "new frontiers of hydrocarbons" together with his colleague Fabio Rocca. He currently is the chairman of the board of the spinoff-company Tele-Rilevamento Europa, that he has co-founded out of the Politecnico di Milano.[6]

Enrique Inglesia

Enrique Inglesia received the Eni award for "new frontiers of hydrocarbons" for "a more effective catalyst is able to efficiently transform raw materials, reducing waste and using less energy. Consequently, a better use of resources, less energy consumption and a lower environmental impact across the entire process." He is the Theodore Vermeulen professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Harry A. Atwater

Harry Atwater received the "renewables and non-conventional energy prize" for his research to "optimise the production of solar energy by reducing costs, thereby helping to spread the use of renewable sources that has so far been economically inaccessible." He is a professor in applied physics and material sciences at the California Institute of Technology, serves as director of the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center on Light-Matter Interactions in Solar Energy Conversion and is also director of the Resnick Institute for Science, Energy and Sustainability. [7]

Albert Polman

Albert Polman received the "renewables and non-conventional energy prize" together with Harry A. Atwater. He is a group leader and director of the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and has been one of the pioneers of the research area of nanophotonics. [8]

Barbara Sherwood Lollar

Barbara Sherwood Lollar received the "environmental protection prize" for the "application of stable isotope geochemistry for the research and protection of groundwater resources and the environment contributes to cleaning up the environment and the world’s water resources". She is a professor in geology at the University of Toronto, director of the stable isotope laboratory and Canada research chair in isotopes of the earth and environment. [9]

Silvia Comba

Silvia Comba received an Eni award for "debut in research" for her work on iron as "the solution to the problem of the pollution of aquifers." At present, Silvia holds a Research Grant in the group “Chemical Reaction Engineering for Energy and Environment” at the Department of Applied Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Torino. [10]

Jijeesh Ravi Nair

Jijeesh Ravi Nair received an Eni award for "debut in research" for his work on "electricity storage from renewable sources, through the improvement of lithium batteries, and always with the aim of reducing possible environmental impact." He is working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Politecnico di Torino. [11] In 2010, he won the Oronzio and Niccolo' De Nora Foundation Prize for his Ph.D. thesis, awarded by the Italian Chemical Society (Electrochemical Division).

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ http://www.feem.it/getpage.aspx?id=410&padre=205
  2. ↑ http://www.eni.it/eni-award/eng/about.shtml
  3. ↑ CGS Solar is a company that began as a joint venture between Pacific Power, a large local utility company, and New South Wales University, for the commercialization of Prof. Green’s research group on Thin Layer Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cells.
  4. ↑ http://www.eni.com/en_IT/innovation-technology/eni-award/eni-award.shtml
  5. ↑ "Fabio Rocca - Winners 2012 Eni award". Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  6. ↑ "Alessandro Ferretti - Winners 2012 Eni award". Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  7. ↑ "Harry A. Atwater - Winners 2012 Eni award". Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  8. ↑ "Albert Polman - Winners 2012 Eni award". Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  9. ↑ "Barbara Sherwood Lollar - Winners 2012 Eni award". Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  10. ↑ "Silvia Comba - Winners 2012 Eni award". Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  11. ↑ "Jijeesh Ravi Nair - Winners 2012 Eni award". Retrieved 2014-08-20.

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