Rich Boden, a PhD research student, in the University of Warwick’s Department of Biologiocal Sciences, has been awarded the Young Microbiologist of the Year Award by the Society for General Microbiology.

He was awarded a prize of £500 and a years free membership of the prestigious international Society for General Microbiology.

He  received his award   for his research into  Dimethylsulfide (DMS)  a gas produced in the oceans upon the death of phytoplankton and which  has been implicated in playing key roles in both climate control as it is the precursor of some compounds which assist in cloud formation.

His research is looking at which bacteria are responsible for this, how they degrade the DMS and what do they turn DMS into. One of the bacteria they are looking at was  isolated from a tidal rock-pool by Warwick researchers.