Ella Kitching was awarded a Rideal Travel Bursary to attend the 21st International Microscopy Congress held in Liverpool, UK. Here she tells us about her highlights from the conference.
"I presented my PhD research as a 15 minute contributed talk in the “Nanomaterials and Catalysts” symposium. My talk was titled “Imaging Oxygen Vacancies in Ceria with Direct Detection EELS and iDPC Tomography”. This focused on the invaluable role that oxygen vacancies have in controlling the catalytic properties of ceria, presented validated methods to avoid electron beam-induced reduction, and demonstrated new techniques to image oxygen vacancy distributions at high spatial resolution in two and three dimensions while working within the established constraints. These novel analytical workflows provide valuable characterisation results to better inform catalyst design and optimisation, as well as transferable methodologies for the wider electron microscopy community. IMC21 was an excellent opportunity to share my research, and the presentation attracted a strong audience, resulting in interesting questions and discussions.
"In addition to the scientific programme, IMC21 provided the excellent networking opportunities. I had productive discussions with researchers at all career stages, who were based in countries such as the USA, Spain, and South Korea, highlighting the global reach of the conference. I have recently successfully defended my PhD thesis, and IMC21 truly was a perfect way to start the next stage of my career.
"As my PhD funding concluded at the end of March, my ability to attend conferences during the final stages of my studies was limited. Therefore, I am very grateful to the SCI-RSC Rideal Trust for their support, which enabled my attendance at IMC21 and allowed me to present my research to an international audience."
Ella Kitching
PhD student
Cardiff University
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