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".

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.

The most recent Faraday Discussion 172 was held in Sheffield from the 28-30 July 2014. This discussions main focus was on the use of Carbon materials in electrochemistry applications. Topics included graphene, carbon nanotubes and carbon at the nanoscale; diamond and sp³ carbons in electrochemistry; carbon electrodes in electrochemical energy technology; and understanding and controlling the carbon interface.

Above: Guohui Zhang, Prof. Patrick Unwin, Prof. Richard McCreery, Dr. Aleix Guell

Several members of the Warwick electrochemisty and Interfaces Group were in attendance including Prof. Patrick Unwin, Prof. Julie Macpherson, Dr. Aleix Guell, Guohui Zhang and Lingcong Meng. Professor Patrick Unwin was an invited speaker at the discussion, and the paper co-authored by Dr Aleix Guell was a main topic of discussion - "Mapping Nanoscale Electrochemistry of Individual Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes". PhD students Lingcong Meng and Guohui Zhang both presented posters on their latest research.

Warwick University hosted the annual Diamond Conference sponsored by De Beers, celebrating the landmark of 65 years. The conference ran from thre 7th to the 10th of July with delegates attending from all over the globe. Lectures covered a wide variety of different diamond research areas including electrochemical applications, nanodiamond, gemmology, quantum technologies, CVD growth, as well as diamond devices and applications.

Several members of the research group presented posters about their diamond research including Jennifer Webb on her investigation into the use of diamond nanopores, Tania Read on her diamond pH generation ring-disk electrode, Lingcong Meng on laser-heated diamond electrochemistry, as well as Glen O'Neil and Zoë Ayres on their work on Electrochemical x-ray fluoresence. Jonathan Newland also gave a well-received talk on "Diamond Microfluidic Devices for Electrochemical Analysis".

The conference provided an opportunity for members of the group to meet researchers and industrialists in the diamond community.

PhD students, Sophie Kinnear and David Perry, represented the group at the Microscience and Microscopy Congress last week. The conference covered all areas of microscopy from advanced functionality of AFM to the latest TEM and SEM techniques.

Both students gave talks about their work with SICM, Sophie discussed her project in using the technique for surface charge mapping and David, gave an insightful talk about using SICM in his newly developed bias modulation mode.