The 18th edition of the Eni Awards was presented on Thursday, October 29, at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, in the presence of Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Eni Board Chair Giuseppina Di Foggia and Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi also attended the ceremony, which recognizes international research in energy and the environment, two fields where scientific collaboration is increasingly urgent.
Since the awards were established in 2008, the scientific committee that evaluates candidate research has included scientists from some of the world's most advanced research institutions, among them six Nobel laureates. The prize has become a recognized reference point in the global research community for work that addresses the energy transition and environmental protection.
The Energy Transition award, one of the three main prizes, went to Véronique Gouverneur of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Her pioneering work has opened new perspectives in fluorine chemistry, developing safer and more sustainable processes to produce compounds used in batteries, pharmaceuticals and agricultural products. According to the award citation, these technologies avoid the production of hydrofluoric acid, a highly hazardous substance, while reducing energy consumption and environmental impact. Gouverneur has also shown that fluorine can be recovered from industrial waste, in line with circular economy principles.
The Energy Frontiers award, for research expected to reshape the energy paradigm of the future, was assigned to Laura Gagliardi of the University of Chicago in the United States. Her team has developed advanced mathematical models based on quantum mechanics that can predict the properties of materials before they are made in the laboratory, speeding up experimentation. Her work focuses on designing innovative materials for energy and the environment, including framework structures described as molecular sponges, which can capture carbon dioxide directly from the air and collect water from atmospheric humidity. These studies also help improve the efficiency of catalytic processes.
The Advanced Environmental Solutions award, dedicated to research on safeguarding and sustainably using natural resources, went to John F. Hartwig of the University of California, Berkeley. His contribution to plastic recycling rests on a scalable and sustainable catalytic process that breaks down polyethylene and polypropylene, two of the most widespread plastics in the world, into their fundamental components. These can then be reused to produce new materials without loss of quality, which supports circular recycling, reduces waste, cuts the use of fossil raw materials and lowers emissions.
The Young Researcher of the Year prizes, reserved for researchers who earned their doctorates at Italian universities, were awarded to Leonardo Magherini and Filippo Trevisi. Magherini, of the Politecnico di Torino, studied in his doctoral thesis the transport mechanisms of different types of particles in water, which can pose a potential environmental risk or serve as powerful tools for remediation. Trevisi, of the Politecnico di Milano, explored a new class of wind technology, the ventoplanes, aircraft tethered to the ground by a cable that fly quickly along circular paths at high altitude and could be used where conventional wind turbines cannot be installed.
The Young Talents from Africa section, created in 2017 to mark the tenth anniversary of the Eni Awards, gave two prizes this year to Nosakhare Jeremiah Aigbedion of the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation in Kenya, and Gosego Keotshepile Mapula Sedikelo of the University of South Africa. Aigbedion's research aims to develop more resistant and durable metal alloys to improve energy storage from concentrated solar plants, allowing electricity generation after sunset and a more stable energy supply in Africa. Sedikelo has developed an ultrasound-based method to recover precious metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt from spent batteries, so they can be reused in new batteries while reducing environmental impact. The winners receive funding to strengthen their research during the doctoral programs they are attending at their home universities.