Summer 2014: Prize for Best Written Communication at ASME FEDSM Conference for Zakariaa Refaa

Each year, ASME's FED (Fluids Engineering Divison) organizes a Graduate Student Paper Competition for PhD students. For the year 2014, this prize was awarded to Zakariaa Refaa, PhD student at CETHIL, for his article entitled "Towards the enhancement of the crystallization kinetics of a biosourced and biodegradable polymer : PLA", realized as part of his thesis work, under the direction of M'hamed Boutaous, in collaboration with Shihe Xin and Patrick Bourgin, professors at CETHIL.Zakariaa Refaa works in the "Transfers in polymers and composites" group of CETHIL. His research focuses on crystallization modeling of PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) under different thermomechanical conditions. This polymer, biodegradable and biosourced, has slow crystallization kinetics. The understanding of its crystallization kinetics, both under static conditions and in the presence of thermomechanical constraints, will make it possible to propose improvement perspectives adapted to the transformation processes.The laureate was able to present this work at the ASME Congress held in August 3rd to 7th, 2014 in Chicago (USA). He officially received this award from the ASME Fluids Engineering Division Scholarships Steering Committee, along with a $ 1,000 reward. This prize also offers the opportunity to join one of the ASME-FED technical committees. As a result, Zakaria Refaa has been appointed to the Technical Committee of one of the six ASME Divisions active in its scientific field for one year. Contact: M'hamed Boutaous, Head of the "Transfers in polymers and composites" group.