Faye Bygrave The Royal Charter award for a materials student of any discipline went to Faye Bygrave, University of Leeds. She achieved an average over 70% in her BEng Materials Science and Engineering. Her final year project ‘The effects of aluminium in steels’ tested how aluminium content affects the mechanical and microscopic properties of steels.

Margaret Wegrzyn Margaret Wegrzyn of The University of Manchester won The A T Green Award as the best ceramics student. She is studying for a MEng in Materials Science and Engineering. Her final year project on sodium potassium niobate piezoelectric ceramic as a possible alternative to lead zirconium titanate displayed her aptitude for research.

Matthew Thomas For excellence in polymer materials, the R H Craven Award was given to Matthew Thomas who is studying a MEng Materials Science at Oxford University. His fourth year research investigated active ingredient delivery in an agitated aqueous environment.

Past Competitive Prize winners

The 2007 Materials Literature Review Prize was awarded to Yi Zhang, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge. He won £350 for his assessment of the literature on inhomogeneous deformation in metallic glasses. His entry will appear in Materials Science and Technology (MST). Peng Zeng, a PhD student at the University of Sheffield was commended for her review on biocompatible wear resistant ceramics for total hip replacements. Zeng received £100.