IChemE announces the 2025 Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability
4th June 2025
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability (YEAIS). These awards honour outstanding young professionals aged 18 to 30 from across IChemE’s global membership who are helping to engineer a sustainable world. Through inventive thinking and practical solutions to real-world challenges, these rising stars exemplify the transformative power of chemical engineering in bringing creative solutions to real-world challenges.
All entrants demonstrated creativity, technical innovation and a commitment to addressing global grand challenges. Their achievements reflect the central role of chemical engineering in society and will help to inspire the next generation of engineers to lead with purpose and innovation.
Following the UK pilot launch in 2024, the 2025 awards were opened up to IChemE’s global membership and attracted over 100 entries. The team of 42 judges - all of whom are valued IChemE volunteers - were blown away by the ideas and innovations presented by the next generation of chemical and process engineers as they looked for evidence of strong communication skills and a description of how their work will support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
UK school students aged 16 to 18 were also invited to take part in the 2025 YEAIS. The range of submissions showed great innovation and enthusiasm amongst these budding engineers and it is encouraging to see high numbers of female students in the winning school entries.
IChemE offers our sincere thanks to The Environment Agency and Elsevier for sponsoring two of the award categories. The Environment Agency sponsored the Clean Energy and Climate Action award category, while Elsevier sponsored the Food, Health and Well-being award category.
The winners, highly commended, finalists and other entrants will be showcasing their projects at 5 virtual showcase events between 10-16 June 2025, where you’ll also have the opportunity to interact with the presenters and ask questions about their projects.
You can find details and register for these sessions here:
YEAIS (Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability) virtual celebration events - IChemE
For more information on the winning projects, highly commended projects and other outstanding entries, please visit the 2025 Awards Brochure
YEAIS Overall Winners
The top 3 awards recognise the highest scoring entry in each age category.
Undergraduate Category
Winner
- EcoMed: Powering Healthcare, Protecting Lives by Anam Ahmed, Eylul Akgok, Jungho Na, Daniel Bull and Helen Lee, Imperial College London
Highly Commended
- Tan Hui Hui, Yi Hang Lok, University of Cambridge
- Kelly Lai Yan Kei, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)
Postgraduate Category
Winner
- A Waste-To-Health & Wealth (W2HW) Approach: Tuning Multifunctional and Sustainable Colloids (Eutectogel & Oleogel) by Zhi Ling Chew, Xiamen University Malaysia
Highly Commended
- Min Kaung Htet Ko Ko, UCSI University
- Abhisek Sahoo, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Early Career Category
Winner
- Wem: Implementing Innovative Low Footprint Wastewater Treatment for Small Communities by William Ryden, Mott MacDonald Bentley – MMB
Highly Commended
- Ikuni Ebereonwu, University of Birmingham and Arup
- Joshua Saczek, University of Manchester
UK Schools Category
Winner
- The Process of Decomposing Organic Textiles using Fungi by Priya, Emily and Laura, St Helen & St Katharine Girls School
Highly Commended
- Sana, Shay, Rishika, Hafsa and Shafia, Wolverhampton Girls’ High School
- Isabel, Rio, Maxwell, Sanad and Patrick, St Mary’s College
Individual Category Winners
Eligible presentations were classified into 7 categories aligned to IChemE’s priority topics.
Clean Energy and Climate Action - Sponsored by The Environment Agency
Winner
- Process Synthesis and Performance Analysis of Low Carbon Heat-Driven Direct Air Capture by Ikuni Ebereonwu, University of Birmingham and Arup
Highly Commended
- Theodoros Papalas, University of Cambridge
- Anuj Joshi, Rushikesh Joshi, Ohio State University
- Claudia Cavallo, Caitlin Grant, Worley Consulting
Water and Sanitation
Winner
- Wem: Implementing Innovative Low Footprint Wastewater Treatment for Small Communities by William Ryden, Mott MacDonald Bentley – MMB
Highly Commended
- Sam Sarrafi, Rowan French (United Utilities)
- Darren Lim Ming Qian, Aishah Sabarudin (Heriot-Watt University Malaysia)
Food, Health and Wellbeing - Sponsored by Elsevier
Winner
- EcoMed: Powering Healthcare, Protecting Lives by Anam Ahmed, Eylul Akgok, Jungho Na, Daniel Bull and Helen Lee, Imperial College London
Highly Commended
- Joshua Saczek (University of Manchester)
Responsible Production, Innovation and Industry
Winner
- A Waste-To-Health & Wealth (W2HW) Approach: Tuning Multifunctional and Sustainable Colloids (Eutectogel & Oleogel) by Zhi Ling Chew, Xiamen University Malaysia
Highly Commended
- Tan Hui Hu, Yi Hang Lok (University of Cambridge)
- Abhisek Sahoo, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Quality Education
Winner
- A Novel Approach to Chemical Engineering Work Experience: By Young Engineers, for Young Engineers by Joseph Harry Carter, Benjamin Patrick Hilton, Lara Alice Hill and Alana Rose Prior, Sellafield Ltd.
Process Safety
Winner
- A Budget-Constrained Optimization Framework for Mitigating Domino Effects in Chemical Storage Facilities by Shuya Hou, University of Surrey
Digitalisation and Cybersecurity
Winner
Enhancing Oilfield Efficiency with Interactive Maps and Pressure Simulations by Abigail Clarke, Shell Trinidad and Tobago
What is chemical engineering?
Chemical, biochemical and process engineering is the application of science, mathematics and economics in the process of turning raw materials into everyday, and more specialist, products. Professional chemical engineers design, construct and manage process operations all over the world. Energy, pharmaceuticals, food and drink, synthetic fibres and clean drinking water are just some of the industry sectors and products where chemical engineering plays a central role.
IChemE
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) advances chemical engineering's contribution for the benefit of society. We facilitate the development of chemical engineering professionals and provide connections to a powerful network of around 30,000 members in more than 100 countries.
We support our members in applying their expertise and experience to make an influential contribution to solving major global challenges, and are the only organisation permitted to award Chartered Chemical Engineer status and Professional Process Safety Engineer registration.