Ms Chunjing Zhao, doctoral student at Polymer Materials, is winner of the INEOS Styrolution Award. Ms Zhao received the first-ever award from the world’s leading supplier of styrenic plastics for her master’s thesis on improving the thermal insulation properties of foamed plastics, entitled: “Influences of Supramolecular Additives on the Morphology and Properties of Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) Foams”.

Dr Norbert Nießner, Director Global R&D/Intellectual Property at INEOS Styrolution Group GmbH, justified the award by saying: “Ms Zhao’s work shows the construction industry a way to make the thermal insulation of buildings more effective and thus lead to energy savings. Her results may well make an important contribution to greater sustainability.”

INEOS Styrolution has been working closely with the University of Bayreuth and Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH in the field of styrene polymers for more than five years.

The award, which comes with prize money, was presented to the successful scientist by Dr. Norbert Nießner and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Altstädt, who supervised the award-winning work, at INEOS Styrolution’s headquarters in Frankfurt a.M. on 12 December 2018.