17 Nov 2014
Research from universities and regional technology companies was showcased at the SCI Early Career Research Meeting which took place on Thursday 6 November 2014. This event, organised jointly by the SCI Process Engineering and Liverpool and North West Groups was held in the University of Chester's new Faculty of Science and Engineering which has been established at the Thornton Science Park. It was a unique chance for PhD students and industrial researchers near the start of their careers to present their results and their future plans.
I feel that research work, such as PhD projects, can sometimes be a lonely path to follow so it is so important for researchers to communicate their results to a wider audience to get feedback. This event also had a strong personal development aspect, in which researchers were challenged to communicate the key ideas of their work to representatives from local companies working in the chemical and process related sectors.
The winner of the best presentation (judged on quality of communication as well as technical content) was Christopher Hone, a PhD student from the University of Leeds, for his presentation, 'Rate-based Experimental Design using Continuous Flow Reactors'. This work is partly funded by AstraZeneca and involves a new method to enable data from small-scale experiments to used in the design of scaled-up processes. Christopher receives free SCI membership, an invitation to the SCI College of Scholars Lunch and £100 travel expenses to attend an SCI event. The second prize went to Radhika Bava, a PhD student from the University of Chester, for her work on understanding the initiation of biofilm development using atomic force microscopy, which is important for avoiding contamination in processing systems and also for controlling infections in medical devices and implants.
Mike Halliday, Chair of the Liverpool and North West Group and a member of the judging panel, was very impressed with the quality of the presentations, saying:
'The diversity of the science on display and its importance for business is exactly what SCI is all about. I certainly hope we have more of these highly successful events in the future.'
Stephen Wilkinson,
SCI Process Engineering and Liverpool and North West Committee Member
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