The Técnico alumna Ana Estêvão (Chemical Engineering) won the 1st honourable mention of the “Ordem dos Engenheiros” Award, for her master’s dissertation titled “Development of luminescence-based sensors for oxygen detection in bottled wine”. The ceremony took place last November, during the celebrations of the World Materials Day.

The award given by “Ordem dos Engenheiros” – the association that represents all engineers in Portugal – rewards the high-quality works developed every year in Portugal, in the field of Materials Engineering. The Técnico alumna shares her pride and satisfaction “it’s really rewarding to see our work being recognised, as it involved great dedication, despite pandemic constraints”. Ana Estêvão, also thanked her supervisor, professor Bruno Pedras (Department of Chemical Engineering /iBB-Técnico), “for his monitoring and guidance, which were critical for the accomplishment of my work”.

Ana Estêvão highlights the high quality of all the theses submitted.  According to the alumna, “the easy miniaturisation and portability of the developed sensors”, and “the possibility of systematically incorporating sensors into wine bottles, allowing real-time monitoring of the oxygen concentration in each bottle”, might have influenced the jury decision.

Currently working in the industry sector, in a field which is not her research area, the alumna does not exclude the possibility of “working again on my dissertation topic, or another topic within this research area”.

The “Ordem dos Engenheiros” Award is delivered annually to the authors of high-quality master’s dissertations in the field of Science and Materials Engineering.

The Portuguese Materials Society (SPM) Award was also delivered during the ceremony attended by the Deputy Minister and Secretary of State for Energy, João Galamba, and the Director-General of Energy and Geology, João Bernardo.