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[September 2007]
PMI Trust Fund Awards 2007
The Trustees of the PMI Bursary Awards have agreed to present two bursaries this year at a value of £2,000 each. The prize monies were awarded in August 2007.
The winners announced for this year are Mr Kieran Owens and Miss Defne Sunguroğlu.
Kieran Owens won the PMI Bursary Award (PhD) for his excellent work on sustainable concretes. As a research student of Queen's University Belfast at the School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering, Kieran is working on utilising carbon dioxide from flue gases to improve physical, mechanical and immobilisation properties of concrete; systems incorporating heavy metal contamination are also involved.
As well as this research on sustainable concretes, Kieran has also been involved in developing an accelerated leaching protocol.
The results of his work so far show beneficial improvements in strengths, permeability and chloride resistance when samples are exposed to an enriched carbon dioxide environment.
Kieran intends to use his prize money to further his knowledge and – as this is a travel bursary – he will now be travelling to Biel in Switzerland to visit Cemex Research Facilities. Cemex is one of the world's top three manufacturers of cement, concrete, admixtures and aggregate.
The visit will give him the opportunity to witness Cemex' ongoing research in a wide range of fields and help him to gain vital experience of the most modern and cutting edge technology. During this trip he also intends to visit Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland to meet experts in microstructural work and to discuss his own similar research.
He also hopes to present a paper at the 1st International Conference on Construction Heritage in Coastal and Marine Environment in Lisbon, Portugal which is scheduled for the end of January 2008.
Industrial Award Winner 2007
Defne Sunguroğlu won the PMI Trust Fund Award for the Industrial section.
She is a research student at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Emergent Technologies and Design Programme [MSc], London, and won the prize for her work on performance driven design development including complex brick and ceramic assemblies.
Defne is now working on the design and construction of a full size prototype of a double-curved pre-stressed brick structure, without the use of mortar. Her aim is to achieve a porous surface that can be utilised for passive environmental modulation. Defne has visited renowned brick manufacturers and discussed her project with them.
She will use her bursary award of £2,000 to buy the materials she will need in order to build her complex brick/ceramic assemblies project to produce a physical functional model at 1:5 scale.
Both research students will present a paper at a suitable ceramic meeting run by the ceramic division of IoM3 in 2008, detailing their year's activities. This will include a review of the benefits they personally gained by winning the PMI Trust Fund Award and how it helped with their work, career opportunities and meeting like-minded people.
Anyone interested in these very important UK-based ceramic awards, whether in academia or industry, can find out more by logging on to the PMI website.
ENDS