“It was quite exceptional,” said Marie Perrin, awarded her work on rare earths

The doctor in chemistry was rewarded in the “Builders on the planet” category. A price that allowed him to be “very contacted” by manufacturers.

Receive the prize for “builders on the planet”, awarded by the European Patent Office (OEB), “was quite exceptional”Reads on Thursday June 19 On France Inter Marie Perrin. The 28-year-old Franco-American researcher, a doctor of chemistry, was rewarded for her work on rare earths.

The prize for young researchers who use technology to meet the major world challenges and who have patent patents with the OEB. It is divided into three categories: Builders of the planet (World Builders), healer of the company (Community Healers), Guardians of Nature (Nature Guardians), to which is added a prize for the public. These prices were awarded to Reykjavik, Iceland on Wednesday evening.

Marie Perrin, a specialist in rare Lands, was awarded in the “Builders of the planet” category for her Europium extraction process, one of the 17 rare land listed officially. During her years of research, she has developed a new method allowing to separate the rare earths from each other, making their recycling possible. Today, recycling of rare earths is very limited, “Around 1%”, indicates the specialist.

“Our goal is to be able to work with industrialists to understand what are the interesting sources of waste to recycle and be able to adapt.”

Marie Perrin, winner of the prize for “planet builders”

at France Inter

Rare earths are “Very difficult to separate from each other”she explains, so “It is very difficult to develop molecules that manage to extract them selectively and that is why the separation processes, in general, are quite intense in energy and chemicals”.

After setting up a start-up in Switzerland, the young woman, a graduate of ETH Zurich, seeks to industrialize her process. In this context, receive this award “was quite exceptional”. The highlighting of his work by the European Patent Office allowed him to receive “Lots of media attention” and to be “Very contacted” by industrialists. “For us, it was very important”.