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.

Many congratulations to Kim McKelvey who has been awarded with the Faculty of Science Doctoral Thesis Award for his work on " New Approaches and Application in Electrochemical Scanning Probe Microscopy".

The initiative, which was commissioned by the Faculty of Science, offered awards of up to £500 for the best PhD theses from each of the Faculty of Science PhD-awarding departments and centres.

Supervisors were invited to nominate eligible students. Each department onvened a panel of internal and external academics to review the nominations and choose the successful candidate.

We also want to take this opportunity to wish Kim all the best in his next academic venture as a postdoctoral fellow in Indiana, USA at the University of Notre Dame in the Timp Nano-Bio Group.

On Sunday 8^th of June, 7 members of the Electrochemistry group (Pat, Aleix, Jenny, Rob C, Rob L, Josh and Dmitry) fought it out to complete a 10 kilometre run from Warwick castle to Kenilworth castle. The Two Castles run has now become part of WEIG tradition, with the group having taken part in the race for the past 6 years. There was huge anticipation as to who in the group would cross the finish line first, and in the end it was Pat that raced through to victory!

Congratulations to all those that participated, for their commitment and dedication to the race. We now look forward to next year's event, and to see if anyone can beat Pat!

The electrochemistry group also came 20th overall in the run! Congratulations guys!

The 2014 Chemistry PG Symposium was held on 28th May 2014 and featured 45 talks by final year PhD students in the department and 37 posters. There was an excellent attendance at all three of the lively sessions.

Congratulations to Changhui Chen (second from left) for the best talk award and Tania Read (fifth from left) for winning the poster prize! Photo by Ken Westwood.