Errikos Kounalis wins 2020 GSNS Master’s Thesis Award

Errikos Kounalis graduated cum laude in the Master’s programme Nanomaterials Science and received the Graduate School of Natural Sciences Master's thesis award for his thesis about “expanded pincer ligands”, which are bio-inspired molecules that can selectively bind two metal atoms in close proximity. Kounalis was awarded with the prize by Isabel Arends, dean of the Faculty of Science.

Two publications

Kounalis’ research resulted in no less than two publications in peer-reviewed journals. Even more so, the insights obtained in his research are expected to enable the development of new and more efficient catalysts. In conducting his experiments and writing his thesis, Kounalis was supervised by Daniël Broere.

Runners up

Runners up are Kevin Collins (Mathematical Sciences) and Isolde Glissenaar (Climate Physics). Collins’ thesis is on a very advanced topic in algebraic topology, which shows great technical mastery and is exceptional for a Master’s student. Glissenaar wrote a detailed and convincing presentation of the problems of remote satellite investigation of ice thickness in the Russian Arctic, and, among other things, she developed and applied a new method of analysis which will be used for future research in Utrecht.