The Winner of the RSC Ronald Belcher Award 2016 is Miss Zoe Ayres!

The Ronald Belcher Award is given for outstanding work on an analytical topic, by a current post-graduate student. Zoe was awarded the prize for the development of her robust boron doped diamond pH sensor for in-situ pH measurements in extreme environments.

http://www.rsc.org/news-events/articles/2016/may/awards-and-prizes-2016

The RSC selection committee evaluated Zoe's contributions to science and deemed them to be of the highest quality, considering not only her research but also her professional standing and STEM promotion. Well done Zoe!

May Day celebrations filled the streets of Earlsdon yesterday as one of Coventry's most popular and cherished events, the Earlsdon Festival, returned for its fifth year to the heart of the Earlsdon community.

The festival featured market stalls, a cake competition, music concerts, talks, poetry, a history walk, antiques valuations and an activity day.

WEIG of course wanted to join in the fun, so our team members Faduma, Maria, Minkyung, Cameron, Dmitry, and Bryn went along with Pat to promote the work of Mary Courtney, our Artist in Residency. Her aim is to uncover the vast mine of beautiful and beguiling images generated by chemists that are never seen by anyone else, and bring them out to the public. We went along to the festival to help share the strangeness and wonder of the stuff our world is made of, the stuff that is out of range of ordinary sight, for example below:

Faduma Maddar, NADH oxidation deposition surface (dubbed "Toast in Space")

Find out more about what went on at the Earlsdon Festival, and read more Mary Courtney's project and collaboration with us.

Roy Meyler recently attended the Hasselt Diamond Workshop - SBDD XXI - in Belgium to present his work on fabricating boron doped diamond electrochemical sensors to be used for detecting in extreme environments.

He won the Best Student Poster award, having been selected from over 100 posters by researchers from 24 countries.

Electrochemistry's very own Crystal Crew have taken a hand in sharing and celebrating the contributions that women make to scientific research.

Today is International Womens' Day, which campaigns for gender parity and celebrates the achievements of women in social, economic, cultural and political fields. WEIG is proud to say that the group is comprised of a roughly equal number of men and women, and is proud to be represented by such strong role models as part of the team.

For more information about the work of the Crystal Crew, check out Warwick's news article at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/news/chemists_celebrate_international/, and to see more about International Women's Day go to http://www.internationalwomensday.com/.