Congratulations!

The Israel Chemical Society (ICS) awarded its 2011
Prize of Excellence to Doron Aurbach (Bar-Ilan
University) and David Cahen (Weizmann Institute
of Science).
Doron Aurbach was honored for “his seminal
research on non-aqueous chemistry, development
of rechargeable magnesium batteries, and for the
development of novel spectro-electrochemical
tools for the studies of reactive electrochemical
systems”. Aurbachs research group also works on
lithium-ion batteries, electronically conducting polymers,
supercapacitors, and devices for energy
storage and conversion. He has reported on a
material for lithium-ion batteries in Angewandte
Chemie,[1a] and on the role of anion desorption in
carbon micropores in ChemPhysChem.[1b] Aurbach
studied at Bar-Ilan University and received his PhD
in physico-organic chemistry in 1983 (supervised by
S. Hoz). After two years of postdoctoral research at
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland,
USA) with E. B. Yeager, he founded the electrochemistry
group at Bar-Ilan University at the end of
1985. Aurbachs other honors include the Electrochemical
Society Battery Division Technology
Award (2005). He has been a fellow of the Electrochemical
Society since 2008 and the International
Electrochemical Society since 2010.

David Cahen was awarded for “his seminal
contributions to the chemistry and physics of
photovoltaic materials and devices, such as solar
cells, and for providing means for controlling their
optical and electronic properties”. His current
research interests are in materials chemistry, in
particular the electronic properties of interfaces,
and the use of biomolecules in optoelectronics. He
has recently discussed the possibilities and limits
for solar cells in Advanced Materials,[2a] and has
reported on electronic contact deposition onto
organic monolayers in Advanced Functional Materials.[
2b] Cahen studied chemistry and physics at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned his

PhD in chemistry and materials research at Northwestern
University (Evanston, USA) in 1973 (with
J. A. Ibers and J. B. Wagner, Jr.). He pursued
postdoctoral research in biological photosynthesis
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (with I.
Ohad) and at the Weizmann Institute of Science
(with S. Malkin), which he joined as a faculty
member in 1976. He was promoted to professor in
1998. Among other awards, Cahen received the
Kolthoff Prize from the Technion–Israel Institute
of Technology (2009).

[1] a) S. K. Martha, J. Grinblat, O. Haik, E. Zinigrad, T.
Drezen, J. H. Miners, I. Exnar, A. Kay, B. Markovsky,
D. Aurbach, Angew. Chem. 2009, 121, 8711 – 8715;
b) M. D. Levi, S. Sigalov, G. Salitra, D. Aurbach, J.
Maier, ChemPhysChem 2011, 12, 854.

[2] a) P. K. Nayak, J. Bisquert, D. Cahen, Adv. Mater.
2011, 23, 2870; b) H. Shpaisman, R. Har-Lavan, N.
Stein, O. Yaffe, R. Korobko, O. Seitz, A. Vilan, D.
Cahen, Adv. Func. Mater. 2010, 20, 2181.

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, vicepresidenta del Gobierno, nos pide a los españoles “un esfuerzo más”. Alberto Fabra Part, presidente de la Generalitat Valenciana, dice que los valencianos ”vivíamos por encima de nuestras posibilidades”.
Trabajo desde hace catorce años en I+D y desde hace diez años lo compatibilizo con unas horas semanales de profesor en la universidad por las tardes. Me esforcé de niño y adolescente en intentar aprender, sacar buenas notas y pasarlo bien. Me esforcé en la universidad para sacar la carrera y pasarlo bien. Me esforcé luego dando clases particulares y continúo ahora esforzándome en mis dos trabajos. Hace diez años, junto a mi pareja, compramos un piso que entraba dentro de nuestras posibilidades. Ahora, tras diez años de esfuerzo, hemos ahorrado el dinero suficiente para pagar lo que nos queda de hipoteca. Llevo años esforzándome y nunca he vivido por encima de mis posibilidades. Podía permitirme coches más caros pero no los he comprado, nunca he pedido un crédito para irme de vacaciones, reformé mi piso cuando tuve dinero para hacerlo. Me esfuerzo en educar a mis hijos lo mejor posible, los llevo a la escuela pública y me esfuerzo en la asociación de padres para ayudar a mejorarla. Cuando mis hijos enferman los llevo a la sanidad pública y si me queda jarabe en casa le digo al médico que no me haga una receta que no necesito.
Ahora estoy a punto de quedarme sin trabajo gracias a los que han vivido “por encima de nuestras posibilidades”. Ahora me piden “un esfuerzo más”. Yo siempre he pagado puntualmente la hipoteca y lo sigo haciendo así que no he hundido a la banca. Yo no he hecho bajar la bolsa, no he hundido los mercados, no he inflado la economía, no he especulado con la vivienda, no he organizado carreras de coches en mi ciudad, no necesito un aeropuerto sin aviones, no tengo yate para ver la salida de la Copa América, no he ido nunca a ver la ópera en el Palau de les Arts. Yo no he deteriorado la escuela ni la sanidad públicas, no he tenido becas ni subvenciones, no he cobrado nunca el paro ni he provocado déficit al estado, la autonomía ni la Seguridad Social. Yo no conozco a Moody, FItch ni Standard pero sí conozco a los que vivieron por encima de mis posibilidades. Yo no les voté, a mi no me representan.
Soraya, el esfuerzo se lo pides a ellos.

Astronaut photograph ISS030-E-10008 was acquired on December 4, 2011, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 24 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 30 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public.

Source

Kenneth Burke “A Grammar of Motives” (1945) p. 39. Traducció meua.

Virtual Physics Experiments

Press release. Dresden, Germany, 15. December 2011

German Federal President awards Novaled’s founders team for the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2011

Novaled AG, a leading company in OLED and organic electronics technology and materials, is pleased to announce that three of Novaled’s founders have been rewarded with the prize “Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2011” for Innovation and Technology by the Federal President Christian Wulff.

The  team of Prof. Karl Leo (Technical University of Dresden and Fraunhofer IPMS  Dresden), Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth (Novaled AG) and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer (now  Heliatek GmbH) received in Berlin the Deutscher Zukunftspreis – the German  federal president’s prize for Innovations in Science and Technology. This  annual prize honours creative teams of people realizing breakthrough achievements  in science and the subsequent industrial exploitation of these new scientific  results. “I am very glad that this team won the award”, said German Federal  President Wulff. “…the topic of this team is particularly promising  because it really can make happen the energy turnaround (towards green  energy).”

„We are very happy about this precious award which is an honor and great recognition of the work of the Novaled team and our partners”, says Dr. Blochwitz-Nimoth, Chief Scientific Officer of Novaled. “At the same time the award is motivating us, to make our vision become reality to significantly improve our life in the 21st century with the help of organic electronics.”

The winners team made remarkable developments in the field of Organic Electronics. At the Technical University Dresden they developed unique OLED technologies able to radically reduce the energy consumption of an OLED product. These technologies find their application in new generations of flat panel display, low power lighting and efficient and flexible solar cells.

Karl, Jan, and Martin are at the origin of a strong Organic Electronics cluster in Saxony; especially with the creation of Novaled AG and Heliatek GmbH (a producer of organic solar cell products).

The spin-off Novaled has meanwhile successfully commercialised its OLED technologies and materials. Both are used for mass production and can be found in products like new generation flat panel displays (e.g. mobile phone displays) and in energy efficient OLED lightings and Organic Solar Cells.

About Novaled
Novaled AG is a world leader in the OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) field and specializes in high efficiency long lifetime OLED structures and is an expert in organic electronics. The company is known for its Novaled PIN OLED® technology, its proprietary OLED materials and the customized OLED products and services. Novaled has developed long term partnerships with major OLED producers throughout the world. Based on more than 500 patents granted or pending, Novaled has a strong IP position in the field of OLED technology. Since 2003 the spin off of Technical University (IAPP) and Fraunhofer (IPMS) Dresden is active in the market. Novaled has some 120 staff worldwide with headquarters in Dresden and offices in Korea and Japan. The company was named No. 1 in a list of ‘up and coming’ world market leaders by the German newspapers Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche. Its main investors include eCAPITAL, Crédit Agricole Private Equity, TechnoStart, TechFund and CDC Innovation. For further details please visit www.novaled.com.
Contact: Ms Anke Lemke, phone: +49 (0)351 796 5819 or anke.lemke@novaled.com

About OLEDs
OLEDs (organic light-emitting diode) are semiconductors made of thin organic material layers of only a few nanometers thickness. They emit light in a diffuse way to form an area light source. In a fast growing display market OLEDs are key part of a revolution: the dream of paper-thin, highly efficient displays with brilliant colors and great flexibility in design. OLEDs represent the future of a vast array of completely new lighting applications. By combining color with shape, organic LEDs will create a new way of decorating and personalizing personal surroundings with light.

S’acaba de publicar l’Odissea, d’Homer, traduida al català pel millor escriptor valencià (viu), Joan F Mira.

És una versió erudita però natural, és llig fàcil i sense perdre el ritme profund, pots disfrutar perfectament el llenguatge a més de les eternes aventures de la èpica més lírica. Això no passava en les traduccions anteriors.

És el moment de llegir l’Odissea una altra volta en català amb gust valencià.

SSL technologies for general lighting applications comprise LED and OLED light sources, luminaires and control gear. They produce white light in different colour tones and variations, from warm to cold white. LED lamps and luminaires integrate high-brightness LED point light sources. OLED devices are based on organic light sources (e.g. polymers) that emit light homogeneously from a two-dimensional surface and can be made in arbitrary shapes and sizes, including as transparent panels.
Lighting is an essential service for domestic use, in public spaces and other applications, from advertising panels, automotive, traffic and street lights to public offices and buildings. In Europe, professional lighting (non-residential buildings and street lighting) accounts for 52% of the total market revenues and residential lighting for the rest. Office buildings use up to 50% of their total electricity consumption for lighting, while this share is 20-30% in hospitals, 15% in factories, 10-15% in schools and 10-12% in residential buildings.
While LEDs have become available on the general lighting market as spotlights integrated in ceilings and as “retrofit” light bulb replacements, recent LED technology advancement has allowed their integration and use in far more demanding applications: street lighting, high-brightness indoor and outdoor lighting, retail displays, general merchandise lighting, etc. Shopping malls quickly followed the trend and some achieved energy savings of 60% and payback times of about 3 years. LED lighting is also appreciated in hotels where refurbishments achieve up to 90% higher efficiencies compared to previous installations. The potential for LED deployment in Europe is very large, as 75% of existing lighting installations are older than 25 years.

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