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[Nov 2005]
Pottery Mechanics Institute Trust Fund Awards
The 2005 Bursary Awards have been announced by the Pottery Mechanics Institute (PMI) Trust Fund. Due to a generous donation from the former British Ceramic Plant & Machinery Manufacturers' Association, the trustees of the PMI Trust Fund were this year able to offer two PhD bursary awards to excellent students whose study is at centres in the UK.
The first winner was Claire Utton, a PhD student at the Immobilising Science Laboratory at the University of Sheffield. Claire received her cheque for £2,000 from Kevin Farrell, the Chief Executive of the British Ceramic Confederation and one of the PMI Trustees.
Claire presented her work on the use of cements for immobilising radioactive waste generated by UK nuclear power plants, in particular a radioactive waste containing carbon-14 in the form of BaCO3. To date, she has established that the BaCO3 waste reacts with the encapsulating matrix to form new products altering the hydration of the matrix. The Trustees were taken with Claire's genuine enthusiasm and well-drawn plan of what she wanted to do with the award money, as well as the interesting project that won her this prestigious prize.
Claire will travel to various universities and institutes in Europe related to her field of research. This will include developing her work in electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis to quantitatively analyse cement microstructure. She will be presenting a paper on her travels at a ceramic divisional meeting of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IoM3) during 2006.
The second winner was Jonathan Gittings, a PhD student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath. He won the second 2005 Bursary Award for his work on the 'Fabrication and Properties of Novel Open Porous Calcium Phosphate Bioceramics'.
In his work, Jonathan has produced both novel and practical structures which mimic, and can be used as a replacement for, natural bone. The research confirms the potential of the fabricated CaP bioceramics as bone substitute materials.
He has developed a post sintering technique for making massive increases in the strength of fabricated hydroxyapatite structures, to the extent that they are now at a level where they could be used as substitutes and the patient could immediately load the bone without reinforcement.
Jonathan is very interested in continuing his research into bioceramic technology, in particular spinal fusion CaP bioceramics, concentrating on increasing mechanical strength of the bioceramics produced without compromising the interconnected porosity network needed for bone regeneration to occur.
Two PMI Trustees - Dr John Liddle (CERAM Research) and Barry Lye (Jesse Shirley & Son) - presented Jonathan with his bursary award of £2,000. He will use the award to further his knowledge by visiting Nanyang University in Singapore and attending conferences. He will make a presentation outlining his experiences at an IoM3 ceramic convention during 2006.
ENDS