Thanks to the EBARA company a new IUVSTA award has been introduced, in 2018.
Vacuum equipment is an essential element in the production value chain of semiconductors, solar cells, LED, E-mobility batteries, etc. that account for markets of several hundreds of billion dollars. In that respect, vacuum equipment is an enabler for the environmental benefit of these mainstream technologies.
The advancement of vacuum equipment and technology does not just enable the creation of areas with close-to-zero pressure, but is an integral part of facing the challenge of increasingly complex production processes by enabling manufacturers to manage corrosive gases with equipment that is fully connected digitally, enabling low maintenance, and ability to withstand harsh environments.
Crucial role of vacuum technology
Hence, advancements in vacuum technology enable progress in mainstream technologies, especially with respect to reducing impact on the environment. The crucial role of vacuum technology as a keystone technology deserves increased awareness. IUVSTA has therefore decided to establish an award for environmentally friendly vacuum science and technology. It is for the same reason that EBARA has decided to sponsor this award.
It recognizes an excellent young researcher or engineer for work on environmentally friendly solutions in the area of vacuum‐related science and technologies. The work submitted to the Award has to be related to vacuum science and technologies and demonstrate considerable environmental benefits (e.g. energy savings). Visibility with respect to environmental protection is important.
The first award in 2019
Environmental concerns in a technological world are both important for EBARA and for IUVSTA. There is one Award each triennium which will be presented as an invited lecture at the International Vacuum Congress (IVC).
There were eight applications for the first IUVSTA EBARA Award, seven of which fulfilled all the conditions: candidates should be within 10 years after receiving their Ph.D. at the time of the award deadline. They need to submit a CV, a summary of the research work in relation to the Award intent, a list of published papers, and two recommendation letters.
An international career
The winner of the first IUVSTA EBARA Award is Dr. Waqas Hassan Tanveer. Dr. Tanveer has an excellent CV with extensive experience in vacuum technology, thin films, solid oxide electrolysis, and nanomaterials. His research is related to important environmental subjects in total adequacy with the award intent ‐renewable energy and environment.
Born in 1986, he obtained his PhD at Seoul University (South Korea) in 2017 “Experimentation and modeling of nanostructured nickel cermet anodes for fuel cells operating on industry waste carbon”. Following his PhD he continued at Seoul University as a Postdoc researcher after which he joined the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad (Pakistan) as an Assistant Professor, working on power plant technology.
Low carbon jet fuels
He is a Research Associate at Herriot Watt University in Edinburgh (Scotland) since November 2018, dealing with biomass integrated stack systems development for low carbon jet fuels. Dr. Tanveer has several high impact publications and is involved in different collaborative projects.
In less than 2 years since he completed his PhD, Dr. Tanveer has achieved a strong record in using vacuum technologies for achieving perfect control of materials, important for environmental benefits.
For this first IUVSTA EBARA Award, the Awardee, Dr. Waqas Hassan Tanveer will present an invited talk entitled Key role vacuum-based technologies are playing to improve efficiencies of novel technologies for environmental benefits at IVC 21 in Malmö (Sweden) during a special IUVSTA Anniversary Session.
