Department alumna Dr Sabine Hallamasek has received the ‘Tech for Green’ prize at Austria’s national award for excellence in digitalisation and innovation, for her PhD on improving sustainability assessment in fine chemical manufacturing.
Now working as a process engineer at VTU in Vienna, Sabine completed her PhD in the department’s Sustainable Reaction Engineering group under the supervision of Prof Alexei Lapkin between 2019 and 2024.
Her PhD research focused on making environmental assessments of pharmaceutical manufacturing processes faster and more reliable during the early stages of development, when data is often limited. The work explored how process simulation, industrial operating data and machine learning could be combined to estimate missing environmental information and support more sustainable process design.
“The thesis addressed a real industrial problem: how to make reliable environmental assessments possible already in the early stages of process development, when data are still limited,” she said.
A central part of the work focused on understanding the environmental impact of waste and wastewater treatment in pharmaceutical manufacturing – an area she identified as difficult to assess reliably because of limited tools and datasets. Her research developed a machine learning approach using historical industrial wastewater treatment data to help address those gaps.
“I believe the work stood out because it combined sustainability, chemical engineering, and data science in a very practical way,” Sabine said.
“The award has provided valuable visibility for my research and skill set, including lasting exposure through online publications and related coverage, and has helped me build important professional connections while supporting my transition and establishment in a new country.”
The award 'Frauen-Förderpreis für Digitalisierung und Innovation' is a national biennial award honouring women in STEM for outstanding research in technology, digitalisation and innovation.
Sabine added that the collaborative environment at CEB was, and continues to be, 'a constant source of inspiration and motivation'.
“CEB played a key role in fostering my understanding of chemical engineering and helping me discover the field’s potential to make meaningful societal contributions, particularly through sustainable and green process development,” she said.
Image: ORF/Roman Zach-Kiesling