RMS Summer Studentship Placements Announced
To celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Royal Microscopical Society in 2014, the RMS launched their new Summer Studentship programme. This scheme was designed to help undergraduates further their studies and gain invaluable experience in their chosen fi eld of study to add to their CV. Four Summer Studentships were offered to be used in the summer of 2017, two for life sciences projects and two for physical sciences projects. Professor Chris Hawes HonFRMS, the RMS Executive Honorary Secretary said “We had an unprecedented number of applications this year which made it very diffi cult to make the fi nal decision! These four projects span a great range of microscopy techniques and will help to further some really interesting research. I wish all four students the best of luck with their summer work and hope that they will fi nd it really enjoyable and worthwhile.”
Physical Sciences Studentships
William Cartwright is a 3rd year Masters student in Physics at the University of Durham. William will be using a novel atomic force microscopy measurement tool to investigate the effect of curvature on the mechanical properties of synthetic extracellular vesicles, a promising tool for nanomedicine.
Yekuan Shentu is in his 3rd year of a Masters in Engineering at the University of Oxford and will use this studentship to conduct a project combining academia and industry. He will spend time in Oxford and at Deben UK using advanced in situ microscopy techniques to characterise the high rate behaviour of polymers under quasistatic conditions.
Life Sciences Studentships
Nikita Patel is in the 3rd year of her Masters in Pharmacology at Imperial College London. In a project conceived by Nikita, she will further investigate the potential use of mesenchymal stem cells and will use multicolour 3D confocal microscopy to image the lung and spleen in and ex vivo and intravital microscopy to gather completely novel data.
Vinayak Ramdhun is a 2nd year undergraduate at the University of Leicester studying Medical Biochemistry. Sparked by his interest in the central principle of molecular biology, Vinayak will use single-molecule microscopy to dissect the mechanism of promote melting by human GTfs and Pol II in mRNA transcription.
The Royal Microscopical Society is a Charity dedicated to advancing science, developing careers and supporting wider understanding of science and microscopy and the Summer Studentships are part of its active Outreach programme
www.rms.org.uk/outreach
Applications for 2018 Summer Studentships are not currently open but further information can be found at
http://www.rms.org.uk/outreach/SummerStudentship
42713pr@reply-direct.com Diamond’s Largest Public Engagement Project Completes Beamtime
Claire Murray explained the range of work from across Diamond that went into Project M. “A project like this required custom built software by Karl Levik, Peter Holloway, Mark Basham, Jacob Filik, Stuart Fisher and Alun Ashton as well as hardware upgrades which were carried out by Jonathan Potter, Ronaldo Mercado, and Dave Bond. In addition we had a fantastic team of scientists including Annabelle Baker, Sarah Day, Anna Herlihy, Dean Ottewell, Stephen Thompson, and Chiu Tang, who helped us prepare all of the equipment and the samples for the experiment. We also had some fantastic support from Rebecca O’Brien at the Wellcome Trust who helped develop the schools packs.
Julia Parker, Claire Murray and Laura Holland on the beamline prior to the experiment
Project M, the UK synchrotron Diamond Light Source’s biggest ever public engagement project, completed analysis of 771 calcium carbonate samples in a 24 hour period at the end of April.
Having asked students from 100 schools across the UK to prepare the samples, Diamond scientists Claire Murray and Julia Parker completed the mammoth task of analysing the 1,000 samples sent back on the 26th and 27th April, using the high-resolution powder diffraction beamline I11.
“Calcium carbonate has three main forms, or ‘polymorphs’: vaterite, calcite, and aragonite,” said Dr Julia Parker. “We’ve asked each of the schools taking part in Project M to produce samples using specially selected additives, and we’re trying to fi nd out which of the polymorphs form for each of the additives.”
“All of this made it possible for the schools to carry out their experiment and also to understand their results, both of which were critical to the project’s success,” Claire Murray continued. “We have been so impressed by how engaged and enthusiastic the students have been and we were delighted to see schools discussing the experiment with their local media.”
“Despite being the 4th most common substances on the planet, there’s so much we don’t understand about calcium carbonate,” added Julia Parker. “Nature can make almost anything from it, from the white cliffs of Dover to the spine of a sea urchin, yet we’re only able to form the crystals into cubes in the laboratory.”
The data is now being sent back to the students who prepared the samples – and it’s hoped that this will lead to a scientifi c paper, as this research has never been done before.
For more information about Project M, visit:
www.diamond.ac.uk/ProjectM 42721pr@reply-direct.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172
