Dr. Rachel Edwards has received an ERC Proof of Concept Grant to develop a prototype system for rapid defect characterisation in components such as railway tracks, aeroplane engines, and oil & gas pipelines.

Dr Edwards was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in the first round of the scheme and studied interactions of ultrasound with defects with different geometries. The research has led to ideas which could improve detection of surface defects in industry, and she has been awarded an additional grant of €150,000 to develop a prototype system building on these results.

Congratulations to two postdocs in the Warwick ATLAS group, Dr Tim Martin and Dr Elisabetta Pianori, who have been awarded ATLAS Outstanding achievement awards. The awards were made for "enthusiastic and vigorous dedication to the implementation and commissioning of the complex ATLAS Run-2 trigger menu". More information on the ATLAS group at Warwick can be found here:
 
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/epp/exp/atlas
 
In the photo Elisabetta is third from the left and Tim is second from the right, pictured with other award winners and the Collaboration Board chair, Howard Gordon, on the left, and ATLAS spokesperson, Dave Charlton, on the right.

Congratulations to Robb Johnston for winning the inaugural Papin Prize for “Contribution to Infrastructure” at the 2015 Higher Education Technician Summit, which celebrated the skills, talent and experience of technicians from M5 Universities. The Papin prizes recognise the invaluable role played by technicians and are named after Denis Papin, a 17th century technician who worked with Robert Boyle and was one of the first technicians to publish in his own name.

Robb was nominated by the department for the longstanding contribution he has made to Physics.