PSI-researcher Helena Van Swygenhoven awarded prestigious ERC Grant
Villigen, 17.10.2013 - The project funded is to investigate how metallic materials behave under complex strain and thus yield clues for the development of improved materials. Helena Van Swygenhoven, materials researcher at the Paul Scherrer Institute and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. This prestigious EUR 2.5 million grant from the European Research Council will enable Van Swygenhoven to launch the new research project MULTIAX, under which she will investigate what happens in metallic materials if the strain occurs in different directions or changes during deformation. These questions could not be clarified using previously available methods and are for instance important for the production processes for car parts.. Furthermore, the project will also develop new methods that can be used to study materials at large-scale facilities, such as the neutron source SINQ or the Swiss Light Source at the PSI. These methods will be accessible to experts from research and industry and provide key insights that will enable the development of optimised materials.