The European Ceramic Society–American Ceramic Society Joint Young Professional Award recognizes individuals who foster international cooperation between the American Ceramic Society and the European Ceramic Society, in demonstration of both organizations’ commitment to work together to better serve the international ceramics community.
Nomination Process
A nomination form must be submitted and should include a statement of no more than 500 words stating the young professional’s leadership and service to further cooperation between ECerS and ACerS either over a period of several years, or highlighting service over and above expectations in a single event/activity, such as organizing a meeting, chairing a committee or task force, recruiting new members, frequently writing and/or reviewing for ECerS and ACerS publications, or promotion of both Societies’ positive interactions in the ceramics and glass community to the rest of the world. Nominee must be within 10 years of receiving his/her/their terminal degree.
The award shall be presented in alternate years at the ACerS Annual Meeting event (held in conjunction with Materials Science & Technology Conference in North America) in even years and the European Ceramic Society Biennial Meeting in odd years. The award shall consist of a complimentary registration for the event for one person, a certificate(s), and a piece of ceramic or glass artwork from the host society.
Contact
Erica Zimmerman
Ph: 614-794-5821
ezimmerman@ceramics.org
Award Winners
Antonia Ressler
Antonia Ressler
Dr. Antonia Ressler started her scientific career at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology (Croatia) where she obtained a Bachelor (2014), a Master (2016) and PhD degrees (2020) in materials sciences. Her PhD focused on biomaterials based on chitosan and metal-ion-substituted hydroxyapatite for tissue engineering applications. During her early research stage, she developed her skills in biological characterization and ceramic 3D-printing at Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Universitat Politehnica de Valencia (Spain) and Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), respectively.
In 2022, Dr. Ressler received prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for AffordBoneS project, and she continued her career at Tampere University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (Finland). During AffordBoneS project, she focused on development of personalized and affordable multi-substituted calcium phosphate-based scaffolds for bone augmentation applications by using ceramic vat photopolymerization method in collaboration with industry partners, Lithoz GmbH (Austria) and Planmeca Oy (Finland). From 2024, Dr. Ressler continues to develop scaffolds for bone regeneration under her GlassBoneS project at Tampere Institute for Advanced Study (Tampere University). Simultaneously, Dr. Ressler is investigating material functionalization to develop biomaterials with antibacterial properties against clinical isolates of multi-drug resistant bacteria, which cause infections during bone implant surgeries.
Dr. Ressler has published more than 30 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals (h-index 16), was recognized as one of the top 2% of most-cited scientists worldwide according to the 2024 Stanford University list of citation metrics, held several invited lectures during scientific conferences worldwide, and was guest editor for the journal Open Ceramics. During her career, Dr. Ressler was awarded with Rector’s Award for scientific work for Master students (2015), the award for the best oral presentation held at the conference awarded by the European Ceramic Society, L’Oreal-UNESCO award for “Women in Science” (2020), an initiative by the L’Oréal Foundation in partnership with UNESCO, and award “Ivan Plotnikov” for the best young scientist of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology of the University of Zagreb in 2022.
In addition to her scientific work, Dr. Ressler strongly believes in the importance of volunteering within the scientific community. She has served as a committee member of the Young Ceramists Network, which aims to foster interactions between young students and professionals conducting research on ceramics. Currently, she is a committee member of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Ceramic Community initiative of the European Ceramic Society, as well as the ENS Postdoctoral Network at Tampere University. She was a member of the organizing committee for American Ceramic Society Winter Workshop (2022), local organizing committee for the Young Ceramists Additive Manufacturing Forum (yCAM, 2024) and is currently part of organizing committee of the 18th Scandinavian Society for Biomaterials meeting (Finland, 2025). Simultaneously, she shares her expertise by conducting a one-day workshop “Navigating Global Research Careers – Young Researchers Sharing Their Experience” in collaboration with Dr. Soňa Hříbalová. In this workshop, they provide insights on building a competitive CV, strategies for going abroad and succeeding, tips and tricks for successful grant applications, and how to conduct research with excellence and impact.