Anna Weatherburn from our Department of Engineering has won a prestigious gold medal award and a £1500 prize at the STEM for Britain awards held in the Houses of Parliament.
Recognising excellence in STEM
The annual event, which is run by the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee in collaboration with professional bodies from across the world of science, was held on Monday 4 March and recognises early stage or early career researchers.
A golden achievement
Anna's gold award winning research poster entitled 'Taking Inspiration from Nature: A New Material for Wind Turbine Blades,' advocates for a novel material design which is tougher, stronger and lighter than materials currently used for wind turbine blades. This new material - which takes inspiration from the complex structure of Nacre or mother of pearl, would facilitate larger turbine blades that can capture more wind energy.
Chair of the Engineering judging panel which awarded Anna the gold award, Professor Constantinos Soutis FREng, said: "It is great to see such high-quality engineering projects and for so many young researchers to be given the opportunity to present their work to parliament. It is a thrill to see such a diversity of engineers presenting their research this year."
Engineering success
In addition, both Lauren Miller and Sophie Draper from our Department of Engineering were also shortlisted from a pool of 29 fellow researchers and had their work showcased in Parliament. The annual event, which is run by the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee in collaboration with professional bodies from across the world of science, was held on Monday 4 March and recognises early stage or early career researchers.
STEM for Britain has been running since 2007 and aims to help politicians understand more about the UK's thriving science and engineering base. The award is judged by leading professional and academic experts and rewards some of the strongest research being undertaken in the UK.
Anna Weatherburn now progresses alongside gold medal winners from other categories to compete for the Westminster medal, recognising the overall winner. We eagerly await the result, and we wish her all the very best of luck.
