Congratulations to Zoë Ayres for winning the "Early Career Researcher Prize" at WWEM 2014. The aim of the SWIG Early Career Researcher Prize for Sensing the Water Environment is to raise awareness of technological development and novel applications related to water measurements and thereby promote innovation in sensor research and commercial application. The competition is run every two years and is open to all ‘early career researchers’ within the first 4 years of employment within their area of expertise.

The national competition required the submission of a poster summarising PhD research and 3 entries were selected for the finals. The 3 finalists then had to give a talk on their research which was judged by a panel of industry professionals. Zoë, who's research is sponsored by Element Six, was awarded with first prize for her research on Electrochemical X-ray Fluorescence, with second prize going to Gary Black of Cranfield University for his work on "Developmnent of a biological early warning system: In-sewer on-line toxicity detection", and third prize going to Brendan Heery from Dublin University for his work on "Metabolism based fluorescence assay and portable device for E.coli quantification in recreational waters".

Congratulations to Jenny Webb and Rob Channon for running the Birmingham half marathon in support of BUPA.

Several group members attended the 65th Annual International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) meeting in Lausanne at the start of the month. The aim of the International Society of Electrochemistry is to serve the worldwide electrochemical community and that of related disciplines through the advancement of electrochemical science and technology, the dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge, and the promotion of international cooperation.

Members of the group presented talks and posters, with Pat giving a plenary talk. Congratulations to Guohui Zhang who received a best poster prize at the event.

Once again, the Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces Group hosted 23 young enthusiastic international students participating in the annual 'London International Youth Science Forum' (LIYSF). LIYSF is a two week residential event held at Imperial College London, with lectures and demonstrations from leading scientists, visits to industrial sites, research centres, scientific institutions and organisations, including world class laboratories and universities. LIYSF attracts over 350 of the world's leading young scientists aged 17-21 years old from more than 60 participating countries. There is an active social calendar with events designed to enable those from around the world to learn about different cultures. The scope of LIYSF extends further than broadening scientific understanding to engage students in education on other cultures and develop lasting, international friendships.

The students enjoyed a day full of hands-on activities, giving them a glimpse of the cutting-edge research at the electrochemistry and interfaces group.

This year, LIYSF’s underlying theme is ‘Eureka - Breakthrough and Development in Science’, focussing on exploring the way that we as scientists develop novel solutions and approaches to important challenges.

Small groups of students investigated structural and electrochemical properties of in-house grown carbon nanotube network (CNT), prepared by Sharel. The students got hands-on experience with electrochemical techniques, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). They also got to build dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) devices, measure their performance and realize how closely related they are to photosynthesis! Most important was the interaction between the young visitors and group members who both hugely inspired each other, talking over lunch. We were extremely impressed with the questions asked by the students in attendance.

Big thanks must go to Barak Aaronson and Binoy Paulose Nadappuram for organising the event, and for everyone else involved (Faduma Maddar, Sharel Pei, Maria Adobes-Vidal, Minkyung Kang, Sze-yin Tan, Alexander Parker and Zoë Ayres.

We have hosted the LIYSF for each of the past 11 years and look forward to further visits in the future!

The top 10 most popular spectroscopy and material science papers published in Analytical Chemistry throughout the last year have been listed in the recent issue of Chemical and Engineering News Magazine.

Among the top 10 was work conducted by members at WEIG, Binoy Nadappuram, Kim McKelvey, Rehab al Botros, Alex Colburn and Pat Unwin on the "Fabrication and Characterization of Dual Function Nanoscale pH-Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM) Probes for High Resolution pH Mapping".

The work features the quantitative power of dual function SICM probes to monitor pH as well as topographical changes during the dissolution of a calcite crystal. Congratulations to all those involved!