Our annual ‘SPIN TO WIN” Young Scientist competition was hosted during the 8th International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN 2020), held at the Brisbane Convention Centre, 9-13 February 2020. Featuring a diverse array of multidisciplinary talks, the meeting connected world leading scientists, students and industry participants working in the field of nanoscale science and technology and facilitated discussions of new and exciting advances.
This year we invited all delegates that visited our trade booth the opportunity to participate in our spinning wheel competition. We offered a number of different prizes including timers, pens and wireless chargers, but the most appealing prize on the board, as expected, was our $2000 Young Scientist Award. The crowd’s energy intensified with anticipation after a number of participants progressed through to the final round. Cheers and gasps filled the room as everyone who had gathered supported one another until finally the winner was announced!
Congratulations to Ms Pritam Sharma – winner of the $2000 ‘Spin to Win’ Prize!
Pritam Sharma is a research student at The University of Western Australia, part of the Microelectronics research group working under the supervision of A/Prof Adrian Keating.
The group focuses on porous silicon and it’s use as a platform to create micromachined sensors. The porous nature of the films created allows the optical, electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of these films to be engineered. Current focus is on achieving a better understanding of the suitability of this material to be used in next generation thermal imaging sensors, which can be operated at room temperature. As the structural material and the release layer are all based on silicon, many of the material compatibility issues associated with multi-material systems and sensors can be avoided.
This award will help Pritam further her research training and improve dissemination of the concepts that she is currently working on.
“Ultimately, getting our students and our projects better known in the research community, helps us as a group to develop a stronger reputation, which assists with drawing in high caliber students who can take the work further, and provides the potential for additional funding support” said A/Prof Adrian Keating.
This award will support Ms. Pritam Sharma to attend Prof. Sailor’s summer school for Silicon nanotechnology at UCSD to further to develop skills in the field of both nanotechnology and Porous Silicon. More than just technical skill development, this is an excellent networking opportunity for Ms. Sharma as Prof. Sailor is extremely well known in the area of porous silicon.
The SPIN to WIN award is part of the ATA Scientific Encouragement award program that started in 2011. The intent is to provide scientists access to financial assistance to enable them to collaborate with peers at scientific meetings and to launch their careers within their field of study. The awards are run at least four times a year which has so far awarded over 60 winners from multiple Universities and research organisations around Australia and New Zealand. We plan to continue posting these awards into the future and encourage all students to enter.