EFCE Excellence Award Fluid Separations

 

The EFCE presents an Excellence Award every four years to recognise a PhD thesis published in the preceding four-year period, which demonstrates an outstanding contribution to research and/or practice in Fluid Separations. This document describes how this award series will operate and the rules and procedures governing nomination and selection of candidates.

The award will comprise:

• A certificate
• A cash award of € 1500
• A travel grant (not exceeding € 500) and fee waiver to attend the International Conference on Distillation & Absorption where the award will be presented

The 2026 EFCE Excellence Award in Fluid Separations will be presented at the 13th International Conference on Distillation & Absorption 2026 to be held in Salzburg, Austria, on 30 August - 2 September 2026. PhD theses published between 1 January 2022 and 31 January 2026 may be nominated for evaluation.

 
Eligibility

• The award is presented to researchers or engineers in the early stage of their careers, who have made excellent contributions to Fluid Separations.
• Nominations may be submitted by
  -  PhD supervisors at a PhD-awarding institution in an EFCE member country, or
  -  Members of a national or regional member association of EFCE
• Self-nominations are excluded
• No more than one nomination can be submitted by the same person
• The nominated PhD thesis must address a topic relevant to the field of Fluid Separations, such as distillation, absorption, extraction, membrane separation, chromatographic separation and similar, of any operating scale. Both theoretical and experimental work will be considered, as will work considering both chemical- and bio-separations.
• The nominated PhD thesis must have been completed and published and the PhD degree examined and awarded during the four calendar years preceding the closing date for nominations.

Nomination procedure, supporting documentation and closing date  

Step 1: NOMINATIONS should be submitted by the nominator via the online submission tool and must contain the following information:

• Name and address of the nominee,
• Curriculum vitae of the nominee (maximum 2 pages). The CV should include a summary of education and career highlights.
• Name and address of the nominator,
• Title of PhD thesis,
• Date work commenced and date when the PhD thesis was defended,
• Letter of nomination in English from the nominator. The letter of nomination should describe the nature, extent, duration and significance of the contributions of the nominee to the field of fluid separations, and comment on the nominee’s plans for continued activity in the field.

The closing dates for nominations is 9 February 2026

Submission Form

STEP 2: A NOMINEE WHOSE NOMINATION IS ACCEPTED WILL BE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT A SUMMARY OF THEIR PhD THESIS  

• The nominee will be informed by e-mail of the acceptance of the nomination and request to submit the summary.
• The summary in English (maximum 10 pages) should containing the following information: summary, problem addressed, state of the art, key innovations, applications, implementations and results, references.

Deadline: 1 March 2026 

Note that nominations and summaries must be submitted to reach the Excellence Award Committee no later than the announced deadlines. Late nominations will not be considered.

The decisions of the award committee are final and no discussions of any kind will be entered into.

Publication of selected work

The successful candidate will be invited to make a presentation at the international Conference Distillation & Absorption 2026 (D&A 2026) at which the Award is presented.