Six perspectives on the materials of tomorrow – a look back at WIMA 2026
The final of the sixth Women Interactive Materials Award (WIMA) took place at the DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen on 23 September 2026. Six early-career researchers presented their work, showing the many ways in which active and interactive materials can be designed and used.
The €10,000 first prize went to Lucía López Gandul of Leiden University. Her talk explored structure-function relationships in supramolecular materials with tunable chiroptical properties. Looking ahead, her research aims to broaden the applicability of these materials by bridging their behavior in solution and solvent-free environments. Ultimately, this work seeks to enable the development of chiral dynamic molecular codes for applications in encryption and anti-counterfeiting technologies. The winner plans to use her prize money to attend scientific events to expand her network within the device research community and establish new collaborations, which she will need for the device integration part of her future research plan.
Paulina Núñez Bernal of Utrecht University and University Medical Center Utrecht and Miriam Filippi of ETH Zurich each received a €2,500 award. Paulina Núñez Bernal presented interactive biomaterials for bioprinting functional human tissue models. Miriam Filippi discussed biohybrid robots that bring interactive materials and living components together.
The other three finalists also shared their research: Matilde Concilio of Imperial College London, Paula de Dios Andrés of Aarhus University and Maritza Rovers of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Their talks covered adaptive polymer systems, artificial cells and materials that mimic the environment surrounding cells.
Petra Severit, Laura Rijns, Susan Napier Thomas, Laura De Laporte and Daniela Wilson contributed to the selection of the awardees.
DWI congratulates the three awardees and thanks all six finalists for their contributions. We also thank the jury and our supporters—ALTANA Group, the Association of Friends of DWI and the Leibniz Research Alliance Leibniz Health Technologies.