PhD students Adam Hsieh and Jouke van Westrenen are the 2025 winners of the annual Ziegler Awards presented by Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE).

Hsieh (advised by Associate Professor Nian Liu) won Best Paper for "Unveiling the Reactivity of Fluoropolymers with Sodium Metal: Mechanistic Insights and Battery Implications," published in JACS AU.

Westrenen (advised by Professor Carsten Sievers) won Best PhD Proposal for "Mechanochemical Hydrogenolysis Reactions for Upcycling Polymeric Materials."

They presented their research August 27 as part of ChBE's Seminar Series.

About the Ziegler Awards

The Waldemar T. Ziegler Awards were established by the family and friends of the late Waldemar T. Ziegler to honor his lifelong commitment to academic excellence and research.

Ziegler was on the faculty of the School of Chemical Engineering from 1946 until his retirement in 1978, when he was named Regents’ Professor emeritus. He died in 1996, leaving behind a legacy of outstanding research in the fields of cryogenics and thermodynamics. Ziegler was instrumental in establishing both the School’s and Georgia Tech’s reputations for outstanding research.

Two individual Ziegler Awards are presented annually to graduate students. The Ziegler Award for Best Paper began in 1998, and the Ziegler Award for Best Proposal began in 2005.