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The Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division of the American Chemical Society awarded Professor Orlando Rojas (Aalto CHEM) the 2018 Anselme Payen Award for outstanding professional contributions to the science and chemical technology of cellulose and its allied products. The Division honoured Rojas at the annual American Chemical Society annual Spring meeting in Florida with a three-day symposium, 31 March - 2 April 2019. An awards ceremony and dinner, where Rojas received a medal and honorarium, was held on the final day of the symposium.

Through research on fundamental and applied aspects of renewable resources, Rojas supports global sustainable development. His research group Biobased Colloids and Materials uses forest-based cellulose and lignin materials in novel high-performance applications to discover alternatives to fossil-fuel-based materials. He is Director of the Academy of Finland Flagship Programme FinnCERES, which focuses on future solutions of the bioeconomy and materials research, in collaboration with partner VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Rojas is also involved in the Academy's Centre of Excellence Molecular Engineering of Biosynthetic Hybrid Materials (HYBER).

The award is named for French chemist Anselme Payen, known for discovering the carbohydrate cellulose in 1838. This is only the second time since its start in 1962 that someone from a Finnish research institution has received the award.

For more information on the award and its history, see the Division's page: .