The winners of the IOM3 Competitive Student Prizes for 2010 were presented in November 2010. These prizes are given to graduates who demonstrate exceptional performance on materials courses.

The Royal Charter Prize for a materials student of any discipline went to Rowan Leary. He gained a 1st Class MEng/BEng Materials Science and Engineering degree from the University of Leeds in July 2010. His research project was entitled 'Microstructural and Microtextural Analysis of GTCAW Welds in CP-Ti and Ti-6Al-4V'.

Sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, he investigated the application of electron microscopy to dental tissues and oral care products. Rowan's passion is for electron microscopy and microanalysis for characterisation of materials at the micro- and nanoscale.

Rowan is now studying for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, investigating 3D electron microscopy techniques for nanostructured materials and devices.

Oliver Croft won the A T Green Award as the best ceramics student. At The University of Manchester, he received a 1st with Honours in his MEng in Materials Science and Engineering. He studied the effects of co-substituting dopants on the perovskite lattice of bismuth ferrite. Ceramics with various dopant concentrations were sintered and tested using different methods.

Oliver's work placement was undertaken at XFAB UK Ltd, where he was a Student Films Process Engineer. He looked after thin film deposition tools, keeping them in service, and improved the output and quality of products. He gained a valuable insight into the role of scientists in large manufacturing companies.

For excellence in polymer materials, the R H Craven Award was given to Han Zhang. He gained a MEng in Materials Science at Queen Mary, University of London.

Project work covered the production and strain sensing properties of conductive thermoplastic polyurethane with mixed nanofillers, to produce conductive polymer composite fillaments by melt spinning. Variations in production and testing parametres were trialled to improve the strain sensing properties of the composites.

Han is now studying for a PhD at Queen Marys, funded by a Framework 7 EU programme. He hopes to solve industrial challenges such as cost savings and weight reduction in composites.

Past Competitive Prize winners