Bristol mathematician Céline Maistret has won a leading award for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at Parliament. The STEM for BRITAIN award is to encourage, support and promote Britain’s early-stage research scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians who are an essential part of continuing progress in and development of UK research and R&D.
Céline said “It was really interesting to see the diverse range of research in my category and I’m delighted to take home the gold award for Bristol. For anyone who wants the challenge of making their research accessible I would recommend taking part,” she said.
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Four other researchers from the University also took their work to the House of Commons for the awards which is backed by the Parliamentary and Scientific committee as well as the Royal Academy of Engineering. Engineers Joshua Mudie and Thomas Pozegic, physicist Kate Oliver and health scientist Helen Williams all presented their ideas to a range of politicians and expert judges alongside Celine.
Postdoctoral engineering associate Thomas Pozegic presented his work into technologies to shape future of transport like materials that harvest and store energy or even sense structural damage and self-heal. Whilst PhD student Kate Oliver used a home-made 3D printer to make soft, shape changing objects from heat responsive chemicals and seaweed extracts. “We hope to be able to print programmable soft units that could have applications in soft robotics, interfaces for devices, implantable medical treatments that unfold in the body or tiny self-regulating valves,”
Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said: “This annual competition is important because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers. These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”
Celine receives £2,000, while silver and bronze medallists receive £1,250 and £750 respectively.
Details of the competition are at www.setforbritain.org.uk
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Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
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