Rhodia to award first Rhodia Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Prize for Science & Industry

05-05-2008: Rhodia will award the first Rhodia Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Prize for Science & Industry on May 15, one year after the death of Professor Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991. French Minister for Higher Education and Research, Valérie Pécresse, will attend the awards ceremony in Paris.

This international prize will be awarded for work of a scientific or technological nature in the area of chemistry, physics or physical chemistry that has played a major role in bringing academic research closer to the world of industry and in line with Rhodia's commitments to sustainable development through :

- A step-change innovation, with proven industrial applications or resulting in a major transfer of technology,

- The creation of an innovative and sustainable company,

- An original and significant scientific or technological development that has created new fields of exchanges and research in the scientific communit

Awarded once every two years to active scientists who are members of academic institutions, universities or private research facilities, the Prize is worth a total of EUR200,000, divided between the research scientist and a grant intended to finance his or her work.

For this first award, Rhodia received 18 international applications from France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Brazil and China.

"The exceptional quality of the applications is perfectly aligned with the positioning of the Rhodia Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Prize for Science & Industry," said Paul-Joël Derian, Group Vice President, Research & Development. "All of them demonstrate the highest levels of scientific research and most of them are combined with considerable benefits for industry. Choosing the winner will be a major challenge for our selection panel."