PTN Medema Award 2014 for Professor Gerrit ten Brinke

Professor Gerrit ten Brinke of the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials is the winner of the PTN Medema Award 2014.

The annual prize is awarded to a prolific polymer scientist who has been of great merit to PTN (Polymer Technology Netherlands), the National Dutch Graduate School of Polymer Science and Technology.

The board of PTN has decided unanimously to honor Gerrit ten Brinke’s influential research in the field of Polymer Physics as well as his involvement in the organization of PTN and in the educational Register Polymeerkundige (RPK) programme of PTN. RPK is a modular post-graduate programme at master++ level centered on polymers on a fundamental as well as an applied level. Gerrit ten Brinke is the coordinator of the Polymer Physics RPK module.

On friday November 29 a symposium is organized at the occasion of the retirement of Professor Gerrit ten Brinke. Please find the program here.

This award is named after late Dick Medema, who was the former R&D director at Shell and after retirement took the position of chairman of the foundation PTN. He was considered a binding force within the Dutch polymer community, but unfortunately passed away some years ago.

Gerrit ten Brinke obtained his PhD in Statistical Physics from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 1985 he became Associate Professor in the Polymer Department of the University of Groningen and in 1996 Professor. During 1994–1999 he was also part-time Professor at the Helsinki University of Technology working closely together with Olli Ikkala. His research interests are self-assembly in complex polymer systems.

PTN is a collaboration between all polymer technology groups from the universities of Delft, Eindhoven, Groningen, Leiden, Twente and Wageningen and TNO Industry. The foundation aims to promote high-level knowledge and skills in the field of polymer technology in the Netherlands. It receives financial support from industry and the associated research groups in PTN.