Amcel is a joint initiative of the Amsterdam electrochemistry community, striving to lay the foundation for the green and electrical energy based chemistry of the future. Through their high-quality education and research programs, Amcel members contribute to the advancement of scientific research and technical innovation in the field of electrochemistry and materials for energy. Each year, Amcel honours the best PhD and BSc thesis with the Amcel award.

The PhD award consists of a prize of 500 euros; the winner will also be provided the opportunity to give an oral presentation at the Amcel Symposium and have the research highlighted on the Amcel website. The BSc award consists of a prize of 250 euro.

The winner of the 2023 Amcel PhD award is Dr Maxime van der Heijden

Maxime obtained her doctorate at Eindhoven University of Technology under the supervision of Dr Antoni Forner-Cuenca of the Electrochemical Materials and Systems group. During her research, Maxime worked on the engineering of porous electrodes for redox flow batteries. She combined modelling approaches, imaging diagnostics, and advanced manufacturing. The jury for the Amcel Award notes that the quality of the nominated PhD theses for the prize has been exceptional this year. Maxime receives the award as a testament to her clearly demonstrated excellence in research. Her high-quality thesis highlights not only her depth of knowledge but also her genuine interest in advancing research work towards practical applications. In January 2025, Maxime will start her independent academic career as Assistant Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo, Canada. With her research group, she aims to develop a framework for advanced manufacturing of optimized porous microstructures for electrochemical applications, combining additive manufacturing, machine learning, imaging techniques, and device testing.

• Read more about Maxime at the TU/e website.

The 2023 Amcel BSc award is won by Thijs de Groot

Thijs received his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) in 2023, with the distinction cum laude. During his bachelor project, under supervision of Dr Amanda Garcia and PhD candidate Pim Broersen, he worked on the synthesis of a novel type of electrocatalyst by means of underpotential deposition (UPD). This well-known process is frequently encountered in electroanalytical chemistry, but its application for electrocatalyst production is quite rare. The research was published in a paper in ChemCatChem with Thijs as the second author. Currently, he is pursuing his master's degree in Chemistry via the Molecular Sciences track at the UvA/VU joint degree programme. He also shares his expertise with others as teaching assistant for both practical and theoretical courses. Additionally, he is involved in the HRSMC class of excellence and the Amcel Talent programme. He also enjoys helping organise the annual excursion abroad of the Amsterdams Chemisch Dispuut. His personal interests include literature, history, biking and music.

• Thijs de Groot on LinkedIn
• Read the ChemCatChem paper