Peccei and Mikhalevich Award Winners 2012
The Peccei Award
Stefan is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen, Germany. His main fields of scientific interest include the use of satellite measurements in tropospheric chemistry studies and the improvement of gas retrieval from satellites with the main focus on biomass burning regions. During his three month stay in IIASA's Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program, Stefan completed a study entitled "Estimates of Forest Fire NOx emissions in Russia between 1998 and 2010". The Committee and external reviewers enjoyed reading the paper and were impressed by Stefan’s “extensive uncertainty treatment” and his rather novel approach in methodology.
The Mikhalevich Award
The Mikhalevich Award was given to Pin Pin Oh from Malaysia and Karol Opara from Poland for their co-authored paper entitled "Kinetic and Thermodynamic Modelling of Biodiesel Reaction". Both Young Scientists were spending their summer in IIASA's Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program.
Pin Pin Oh is currently a PhD student at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia and a researcher at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. Her main fields of scientific interest include mathematical modelling, process simulation and optimization, bioenergy and membrane separation.
Karol Opara works at the Systems Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His research interests focus on stochastic optimization algorithms, applied statistics and
economic aspects of road management.
Their joint work is a great example of the positive effect the Young Scientists Summer Program can have on two scientists with different backgrounds working on the same topic. It received great internal and external reviews and was perceived as “an overall strong paper, fun to read, with a beautiful optimization technique”.
About the Awards
The Awards are given annually for outstanding work by participants in IIASA's Young Scientists Summer Program. They provide financial support for the winners to return to IIASA for an additional three month period of research.
Eight papers were submitted for consideration. The Selection Committee gratefully acknowledges the evaluations performed by all external reviewers; their input was of great value in the selection process.