Tomislav Stolar wins the Falling Walls Lab Adlershof
The BAM scientist presented an innovative approach to recycling plastics
Within only three minutes the jury was convinced: Tomislav Stolar, scientist in the Structural Analysis Team at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) won the Falling Walls Lab Adlershof. The North German preliminary of the international science pitch is organized by BAM together with the Initiativgemeinschaft Außeruniversitärer Forschungseinrichtungen Adlershof (IGAFA e. V.). As the winner, Tomislav Stolar can look forward to a prize of 500 euros, sponsored by IGAFA, as well as a ticket to the Falling Walls Summit from November 7-9 in Berlin. There, on November 7, he will compete in the grand finale against the other winners of the total of 78 international labs and will be able to present his idea again in front of a larger jury.
In his pitch, Tomislav Stolar successfully presented an innovative research approach for recycling plastic waste. In this process, polymers are mechanochemically "broken down" into their smallest units, the monomers. The advantage of this is that recycled monomers can be repolymerized into new plastics instead of using monomers that are extracted from the fossil fuels. Today, only about 10 percent of all plastic waste worldwide is processed and tends to be "downcycled" into low-grade materials. It has the potential to drastically reduce energy consumption and processing costs during recycling, as it does not require any solvents, making mechanochemical processing significantly more sustainable than current processes Plastic recycling thus becomes more economical overall. The overall aim is to achieve the target set by the EU of recycling 100 percent of all plastic packaging by 2030.
Tomislav Stolar currently holds an Adolf Martens Fellowship, which BAM awards for twelve months at a time to young, international, and doctoral scientists with excellent academic achievements and outstanding references. In addition, he has just applied for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellowship with his research idea.
Second and third place winners of the Falling Walls Lab Adlershof are Anthea Widges of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and Arsène Chemin of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie. The runner-up will also get the chance to compete again at the grand finale in Berlin.
About the Falling Walls Lab
The Falling Walls Labs take place annually around the world. The finalists of all Labs get the opportunity to travel to Berlin in November and compete against each other at the "Emerging Talents Category Day". The winner receives a cash prize and is allowed to present his or her topic once again on the stage of the Falling Walls Summit in front of an international audience from science, business, politics, and the media. The Falling Walls Summit has been held every year since 2009 on the day the Berlin Wall came down and serves as an exchange between young scientists and the world's leading top researchers on current innovations and solutions for global challenges.
Further information
- „A working environment in which I can thrive“ – Interview with Dr Tomislav Stolar
- Falling Walls Lab Adlershof
- Falling Walls Science Summit
Credit: Press release BAM, 22 September 2023