This year, you, the participants of the PhD Symposium made the event a success again. We would like to thank all sponsors, PhD students, members of the Empa directorate and everyone else involved. Furthermore, we would like to congratulate the winners of this years' awards:

Pictured from left to right: Shih-Chi Yang (Winner of the Empa Forschungspreis), Julia Chmielwska (Winner of the best poster award), Dr. Tanja Zimmermann (Empa Director), Oza Meet Jaydeepkumar (Winner of the best scientific image award), Amogh Kinikar (Winner fo the Empa Forschungspreis).

Further award recipients who are not pictured: Raphael Kuhn (Winner of the BASF Sustainability Award), Kevin Kleeman (Winner of the best presentation award).

In the 2023 edition of the PhD Student Symposium, we want to put a particular emphasis on how materials innovations can be translated into commercially viable green technologies. To this end, we want to motivate presenters to highlight challenges that have to be overcome. This may include challenges that are tackled within their own PhD research but also extend towards challenges that may lie outside of their field. As a result, we want the symposium to be a platform to encourage critical thinking and to initiate collaborations between attendees from various fields of research.

The symposium will embrace a diverse range of topics within applied materials science and engineering, aligning with Empa's research focal points:

• Advanced and Functional materials
• Materials for Health and Performance
• Energy and Environmental
• Sustainable Built Environment
• Analytical Science and Technology
• Automation and Artificial Intelligence

The symposium will be held on-site at the Empa Akademie according to this program:

8:00	Welcome & Registration
8:30	Opening remarks by Organizing Committee & Dr. Tanja Zimmermann
8:45	Diversity and Inclusion at Empa
9:00	Keynote speaker Dr. Teodoro Laino
9:30	Student presentations
10:30	Coffee break & Poster sessions
11:15	Keynote speaker Dr. Christoph Weder
11:45	Student presentations
12:45	Lunch break & poster sessions
14:00	Student presentations
15:20	Coffee Break & poster presentations
16:00	Student presentations
18:20	Apéro & Dinner (TBA)

Please follow the guidelines for the abstract and indicate your preference for either a poster or presentation.

Each abstract will be evaluated and authors will be notified on whether and how their contributions will be accepted via email. Please note that based on the expected amount of submissions, not all oral presentations may be granted.

Presentations should be held for 15 min and be followed by 5 min of Q&A sessions. Due to the wide range of topics covered, please make sure to include a general introduction of your field in the beginning of your talk.

Posters should have an A0 size format (841 mm ⋅ 1189 mm) in portrait.

As usual, the participation is free of charge.

Website created by Alexander Wieczorek