A research group including three MANA researchers, Dr. Enrico Traversa, MANA Principal Invesitgator, Dr. Emiliana Fabbri, MANA Scientist and Dr. Daniele Pergolesi, MANA Scientist, has received the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) Ross Coffin Purdy Award. The award ceremony was held at the ACerS 113th Annual Meeting in Columbus on October 16-20, 2011. The award was given for their paper "High proton conduction in grain-boundary-free yttrium-doped barium zirconate films grown by pulsed laser deposition” that was published in Nature Materials in 2010

The Purdy award is given to the author or authors who made the most valuable contribution to ceramic technical literature during the calendar year prior to the selection.