The inaugural Karl J. Strnat Award was awarded to Professor Hadjipanayis at the 24th International Workshop on Rare-Earth and Future Permanent Magnets and Their Applications in Darmstadt, Germany for his lifetime achievements.
Hadjipanayis, who worked in the industry with Strnat for a few years in his early career, said: "He [Strnat] was the first person to make rare-earth permanent magnets. I'm extremely honored to receive the first award given in his name."
He said, permanent magnets produce a strong magnetic field and can be used in the production of motors, mostly in such "green energy" applications as electric vehicles and wind turbines.
In 1970s, during the time when Hadjipanayis was still a doctoral student who conducted research on permanent magnets, they were made with cobalt-platinum which that time was very expensive to produce. This is the reason why industrial and academic researchers discovered several alternative materials and thereafter began using rare-earth cobalt.
However, Hadjipanayis said that cobalt came from Zaire, a politically unstable African country. And so, companies again started to compete in developing alternative, cobalt-free materials.
Hadjipanayis, with two other inventors, conducted a pioneering work in permanent magnets which led to the discovery of rare-earth magnets made with neodymium, iron and boron which are most commonly known as the Nd-Fe-B magnets. It also led to the development of high temperature magnets. He was also the first researched to publish a study on Nd-Fe-B magnets in 1983.
According to Hadjipanayis, most rare earths come from China to which in the recent years, restrictions have caused the upsurge of the market's prices.
"There's a lot of effort today to develop permanent magnets that use little or no rare-earth materials," Hadjipanayis said.
George Hadjipanayis received several awards for his profession as a researcher and an academic leader. He joined the University of Delaware's faculty in 1989.
He authored more than 500 publications in refereed journals. Hadjipanayis has also given more than a hundred of invited talks and lectures and over 300 seminars and presentations for meetings and workshops.
Some of the notable publications of Hadjipanayis include "Effect of Cr Substitution on the Formation and Magnetic Properties of Sm2(Fe,Cr)17Cx Alloys", "Magnetic Properties and Microstructure of Fe-O and Co-O Thin Films", and "Size Dependent Magnetic Properties of MnFe2O4 Nanoscale Particles Prepared by Coprecipitation".
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