On December 26, 2020, after nomination and voting, 4 scientists won the 2020 5th IETI Annual Scientific Award. After the publication of the 5th Annual Scientific AwardWinners, the award-winning members have covered scientists from Oceania, America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
The 4 scientists of this year are from Canada, Mauritius and Georgia. The specific information is as follows:
[1] Andreas Mandelis
Andreas Mandelis is a Full Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto. He is the Canada Research Chair in Diffusion-Wave and Photoacoustic Sciences and Technologies and Director of the Center for Advanced Diffusion-Wave and Photoacoustic Technologies (CADIPT) at the University of Toronto. He received his BS degree (Magna cum Laude) in physics from Yale University, and MA, MSE, and Ph.D. degrees from the Applied Physics and Materials Laboratory, Princeton University. He is the author and co-author of 430+ scientific papers in refereed journals and 190+ scientific and technical proceedings papers. He is Contributing Editor of the AIP flagship magazine Physics Today. He has several inventions, 39 patents and patents pending in the areas of photothermal tomographic imaging, signal processing and measurement, hydrogen sensors, dental laser diagnostics (biothermophotonics), several semiconductor non-destructive diagnostic technologies and laser biophotoacoustic and biothermophotonic tissue imaging. He holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Diffusion-Wave and Photoacoustic Sciences and Technologies at the University of Toronto. Professor Mandelis has received numerous national and international prizes and awards including the APS Keithley Award in Instrumentation Science, the Discovery Award in Science and Engineering (the Ontario Premier’s Innovation Award), the ASME 2009 Yeram Touloukian Award (and Medal) in Thermophysics, the Senior Prize of the International Photoacoustic and Photothermal Association, the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Industrial and Applied Physics and the CAP-INO Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Applied Photonics. In 2014 he was elected Killam laureate, recipient of the Killam Prize in Engineering, one of Canada’s highest academic prizes awarded annually by the Governor General of Canada. In 2017 he was the recipient of the Inaugural Canadian NDT Research Award, Canadian Institute for Non-Destructive Evaluation (CINDE).
[2] Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
Dr. Bibi Ameenah Firdaus Gurib-Fakim is a Mauritian biodiversity scientist who served as the 6th President of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018. Gurib-Fakim is the first woman elected as president of the country. She served as a 2019 keynote speaker of Cambridge University's conference "Africa Together: Which Way Forward?" hosted by the African Society of Cambridge University. Gurib-Fakim has also been the recipient of various international awards including the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2007), Laureate for the National Economic and Social Council (2007), the CTA / NEPAD / AGRA / RUFORUM for ‘African Women in Science’ and the African Union Award for Women in Science. She was also made Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (CSK) by President Anerood Jugnauth in 2008 for her contribution in the education and the scientific sector. She was awarded the Order of the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques’ by the Government of France in 2009. Upon becoming President, she was automatically elevated to the highest civilian award of Grand Commander of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (GSCK). She graduated from the University of Surrey in 1983 with a BSc degree in chemistry. After obtaining her PhD degree in organic chemistry at Exeter University, she returned home in 1987 to take employment at the University of Mauritius. She worked as Managing Director of CIDP Research & Innovation (formerly Cephyr, Centre for Phytotherapy Research). Previously, she was a Professor with a personal chair in Organic Chemistry at the University of Mauritius (2001) and where she served successively as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Pro–Vice Chancellor (2004–2010). She also worked at the Mauritius Research Council as Manager for Research (1995–1997). She served as the Chairperson the International Council for Scientific Union – Regional Office for Africa (2011–2014)
[3] Kvesitadze Giorgi
Kvesitadze Giorgi, President of Georgian National Academy of Sciences, professor of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Member of Georgian National and several foreign Academies. Editor of Georgian National Academy Journal “Moambe”, member of editorial boards of four international Journals. Scientific interests: elaboration of plants and microorganisms based ecotechnologies. Kvesitadze Giorgi, President of Georgian National Academy of Sciences, professor of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Member of Georgian National and several foreign Academies. Editor of Georgian National Academy Journal “Moambe”, member of editorial boards of four international Journals. Scientific interests: elaboration of plants and microorganisms based ecotechnologies. His research interest focuses on the study of Caucasian biodiversity, creation of the collections of microorganisms, including their extremophilic forms and subsequent selection and selection of stable enzymes producers (amylases, cellulases, proteases, lipases, etc.) of industrial importance; structural and functional characterization of enzymes; elaboration of efficient methods for immobilization of microbial hydrolytic enzymes and spheres of their use; enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic and starch-containing renewable substrates (including agro-industrial wastes); enzymes decomposing a new generation of lignocellulose, study of the ability to transform organic pollutant organic toxic substances by microorganisms and plants. On the basis of these studies a new global concept of the environmental protection, bio and phytoremedical technologies has been developed.
He has written more than 400 publications, holds over 47 patents.
[4] Federico Rosei
Professor Federico Rosei completed his education (Laurea 1996, PhD 2001) in Physics at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy. Afterwards, he briefly worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Marie Curie Fellow in the Center for Atomic Scale Materials Physics at University of Aarhus in Denmark (Nov. 2000 to Apr. 2002), under the supervision of Professor Flemming Besenbacher.In May 2002, he started his independent career at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) as Assistant Professor in the Centre for Energy, Materials and Telecommunication (EMT) in Varennes (Quebec), Canada. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2004 and to Full Professor in 2009. He served as Director of the EMT Centre between July 2011 and March 2019.For sustained leadership and service to the international engineering community, in particular for original research in photonic materials and optoelectronic devices and for developing global collaborations through projects and networks in China, Mexico and several African countries, and for exceptional mentoring efforts. Dr. Rosei's research interests focus on the properties of nanostructured materials, specifically on how to control their size, shape, composition, stability and positioning when grown on suitable substrates. He has extensive experience in fabricating, processing and characterizing inorganic, organic and biocompatible nanomaterials. His core activities examine structure/property relationships in advanced materials, essentially studying how morphology and composition influence the functionalities of materials. He investigates both fundamental systems and applications. Examples of the former include the atomic level properties of surfaces and interfaces, molecular self-assembly in 2D and surface confined polymerization reactions. For the latter case, he has used different kinds of nanomaterials as building blocks for emerging optoelectronic technologies, realizing for example high performance photovoltaic devices, photodetectors, optical nanothermometers, photoelectrochemical cells for hydrogen production, luminescent solar concentrators etc. He has published over 365 articles in prestigious international journals. He has been invited to speak at over 325 international conferences and has given over 240 seminars and colloquia and 40 public lectures in 46 countries on all inhabited continents. His publications have been cited over 15,000 times and his H index is 64 (Google Scholar, September 2020).