The Dr.-Richard-Escales-Award
Chemist, explosives expert, cosmopolitan, and publisher – Dr. Richard Escales could be described in many different ways. But above all, he had a passion for plastics. In 1911 he founded a trade journal entitled «Kunststoffe» («Plastics»), which, as a «magazine for the production and use of refined or chemically manufactured substances», was intended to familiarize the expert audience with the possibilities the new material had to offer. Richard Escales coined the word «Kunststoff» with his publication, and the term is still used in German to refer to this class of materials – plastics.
In memory of Escales, the Carl Hanser Verlag has been presenting the Dr. Richard Escales Award to people who have made outstanding contributions to the plastics industry every three years since 1998. The Carl Hanser Verlag has been supported in this by the VDWF since 2016. The prize is traditionally awarded during the K fair in Düsseldorf.
The previous winners are:
- Dr. Erwin Bürkle (1998)
- Prof. Dr. Tim Osswald (2001)
- Dr. Erwin Baur (2004)
- Prof. Dr. Christian Bonten (2007)
- Prof. Dr. Georg Steinbichler (2010)
- Prof. Dr. Erich Wintermantel (2013)
- Prof. Dr. Sonja Pongratz (2016)
- Prof. Andreas Gebhardt (2019)
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Seul and Kurt Gebert (2022)