Silke Diedenhofen wins FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize
The FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize 2011 worth 5000 euros has been awarded to former FOM PhD student Dr. Silke Diedenhofen. The jury was struck by how she creatively translated her work in the area of nanowires to a broader market. The prize will be presented on 17 January 2012 during the congress Physics@FOM Veldhoven.
Diedenhofen gained her doctorate within the FOM-AMOLF group 'Surface Photonics' at the Philips campus in Eindhoven. She focused on the propagation of light in ensembles of nano wires. In her extensive valorisation chapter Diedenhofen described the possible applications of this, such as the improvement of existing solar cells and a new type of solar cell. "Diedenhofen has come up with good 'out of the box' ideas and has identified applications in various areas. These applications concern broad societal problems and have the potential for general market applications," says the jury.
FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize
FOM encourages PhD students to devote a separate chapter in their thesis to valorisation of their doctoral research. This concerns issues such as who (within or outside of academia) might be interested in your results and why, and whether any long-term applications of your work are conceivable? The FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize emphasises the importance FOM attaches to valorisation and has the aim of making PhD students more aware of the valorisation possibilities of their research.