TireTech, the world’s largest global tyre Exhibition and Conference, was this year hosted in Hannover, Germany from 3-5th March 2026. During the event, the organisers awarded the Tire Technology International Young Scientist Prize for 2026 to Max Dixey, a PhD student from Prof James Busfield’s Soft Matter Group in SEMS, who is sponsored by Continental Tires.

The award was for his conference presentation on the ‘Effects of carbon black activators on dynamic viscoelasticity.’ The specialist jury panel was headed by the founder of JP76 Solutions, Jan Prins, who explained during the prize ceremony that “Max delivered a clear presentation calmly and confidently, giving a good overview of his work. He also showed impressive depth considering he’s quite early in his research project. We look forward to seeing more about his work in future years.”

Prof James Busfield commented that, "It is fantastic that Max’s work which is sponsored by our great collaborators from Continental has been recognised. It is amazing that a first year PhD student can win such a prestigious international award. It is a great reflection of the team we have in SEMS working on soft materials.” Max gave one of the five papers presented by members of the Soft Matter Group this year. It is only the second time after Dr Lewis Tunnicliffe (in 2013) that a QMUL student has won this prestigious Young Scientist Award.