On Thursday 7 December, Nina Movin, Director of the Otto Mønsted Foundation, had the great pleasure of presenting the Otto Mønsted Foundation’s annual MADE award. This year, the first and second prizes went to two recipients who have solved – or have the potential to solve – significant industrial problems.
The Otto Mønsted Foundation’s first prize went to Pravin Kumar Mallick, MADE PhD at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
The cash prize of DKK 100,000 was awarded to support his research on a configuration support tool for designing return programmes for Novo Nordisk and their insulin pens.
“Pravin’s multidisciplinary approach has been unique and he has successfully collaborated with various manufacturing companies on the MADE FAST research platform to test the tool in practice. He has managed to develop a plug-and-play product with huge potential for the manufacturing industry,” said the judges.
Novo Nordisk also expressed great enthusiasm for the prize winner’s research:
“Pravin contributes significantly to our business and Circular for Zero strategy by bringing insights from programmes to develop a configuration support tool to help design take-back programmes. This is crucial for maturing our decision-making processes and insights into the most effective ways to design and scale take-back programmes,” explained Kim Bang Salling, Head of Data and Analytics, Environment and Social Sustainability.
The Otto Mønsted Foundation’s second prize was awarded to Juanita Gallego Dávila, MADE PhD at Aalborg University.
She received a cash prize of DKK 50,000 to support her research, which involved working with Aalborg Portland on Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) – a strategy to reduce carbon in industrial processes in cement production.
“Juanita’s contribution to Aalborg Portland’s major task of establishing a strategy to reduce carbon in industrial processes in cement production has been outstanding. The challenge of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) is well known and she has been instrumental in developing guidance that has the potential to ensure a more sustainable future,” said the judges.
About the Made award
The prize is awarded annually to a PhD student or postdoc affiliated with one of the four universities; AAU, AU, DTU and SDU in the MADE collaboration.
The jury: Bjarne Kjærs Ersbøll, DTU, Morten Buhl Sørensen, Danfoss, Ulrich Heegaard Brorson, Grundfos, Casper Handen, Technicon and Peter Hesseldahl, Mandag Morgen.