The Oerlikon Metco Young Professionals Award (OMYPA) has been given annually to bright individuals who show promise in contributing to innovations in surface engineering. Presented since 2011 at the International Thermal Spray Conference (ITSC), it is granted toexceptional university students who demonstrate significant accomplishments in the field. “It is very important to attract young talent from universities and motivate them to participate in our industry,” said Dr Richard Schmid, CTO at Oerlikon Metco. “They represent our future and bring fresh ideas and methodologies to our field. Their contributions enable innovative adaptations which are vital in today‘s environment of fast technological changes and high market demands.” Besides nurturing new talents, the OMYPA creates an ideal interface between the academic community and industry. This collaboration provides an opportunity for young talent from all regions to present their surface technology and materials research work to an international audience of academia and industry experts.
»Probably the most challenging of all presentations«
Emine Bakan received the honors in May 2013 at ITSC in Busan, Republic of Korea, for her outstanding presentation titled ‘Overcoming the Implementation Challenges of Gadolinium Zirconate in Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings’. At the time, she was a PhD student at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-1) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. Ms Bakan worked under the direction of Professor Dr Robert Vaßen at IEK-1 in the Materials for Advanced Power Plants division, one of the groups that conducts research on various disciplines of materials synthesis and processing. She thrived in the coatings material group which develops materials for use as thermal barrier coatings in gas turbines. In other words, focusing on producing efficient energy production methods and materials for commercial use.
»Participating in the Young Professionals competition at ITSC 2013 was definitely a nice and enjoyable experience for me,” says Emine Bakan about her participation in the OMYPA. “The five-minute scientific presentation is probably the most challenging of all presentations to accomplish. Thanks to this competition, I learned a lot about what it takes to clearly convey complex ideas to an audience. Furthermore, it was a unique opportunity not only to meet with the global Thermal Spray community, but also to pick experts‘ brains regarding my research. I sincerely encourage young Thermal Spray researchers to take this occasion to expand their knowledge and leverage their networks.«
After finishing her PhD, Emine Bakan resumed her studies in the group with Professor Dr Robert Vaßen at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, as a postdoctoral fellow. In collaboration with Oerlikon Metco, they work on the development of environmental barrier coatings
»Definitely a great opportunity to debut yourself as a researcher«
Amanda Wang is this year’s award winner. She received the honours at ITSC 2016 in Shanghai, China, for her exceptional presentation titled ‘Three Dimensional Reconstruction of Plasma Sprayed Ni-20Cr on Alumina’.
BEYOND SURFACES met the young researcher and asked her about the source of her daily inspiration, her experience and future plans.
