Springer’s Journal of Materials Science awards the 2015 Robert W. Cahn Best Paper Prize

University of Virginia scientists receive award for their outstanding paper on protective coatings for ceramics

Heidelberg | Boston, 1 December 2015

Springer’s Journal of Materials Science has awarded the 2015 Robert W. Cahn Best Paper Prize to Bradley T. Richards, Hengbei Zhao and Haydn N.G. Wadley of the University of Virginia for their study on the important issue of how to protect ceramics that have applications in advanced, high efficiency, gas turbine engines. The authors of the winning paper receive an award of $5,000.

Ceramics can withstand operating temperatures exceeding those of superalloys, but they need protection from the water-rich oxidizing environment they will encounter in service. Richards, Zhao and Wadley have proposed using ytterbium silicide as a protective coating. Their study examines how to optimize the deposition process used to apply these coatings.

C. Barry Carter, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Materials Science, said, "When a journal covers the entire field of materials science and receives more than 5,000 submissions each year, the winner of the Cahn Prize, selected by members of our editorial boards, epitomizes the outstanding quality of the papers that the journal publishes."

Charles Glaser, Springer’s Executive Editor for the journal, added, “The Journal of Materials Science is honored to publish the findings of excellent researchers. In order to recognize their achievements, we award the Cahn Prize to the best of the best and hope this recognition will help and encourage the winning scientists in their careers. Springer is proud to play a role in making their research more accessible, thereby accelerating further discovery.”

The Cahn Prize was named in honor of the journal’s founding editor, the late Professor Robert Wolfgang Cahn. This annual prize recognizes a truly exceptional original research paper published in the journal in a given calendar year. Each month the editors select a paper published in that month's issue through a rigorous nomination and voting procedure. The winning paper is then selected from the 12 finalists by a separate panel of distinguished materials scientists.

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