Mitali Kakran from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, has won this year's Young Persons' World Lecture Competition with a presentation entitled 'Graphene - The New Wonder Material'.

Mitali was one of the record nine candidates representing Brazil, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, United States and the UK. The competition, organised by IOM3, was held on 29 September at the University of São Paulo. The subjects presented varied from materials fatigue and fracture resistance, smart self-healing metal-matrix composites, use of underground space and polymer zinc-air batteries to polymeric composites, recovery of water from mining brines, and materials of the Olympic and paralympic games.

Finalists and judges at the residence of the British Consul-General in Sao Paulo, Brazil

IOM3 President Jan Lewis welcomed the audience to the seventh World final, held in Brazil for the first time, which builds on the Institute's international links in South America. The event was sponsored by CBMM and supported by Rolls-Royce.

The competition, open to candidates under the age of 28, tested presentation skills as competitors delivered a 15-minute lecture on materials and mining related topics. This was followed by questions from a panel of judges consisting of Dr Tadeu Carneiro, Chief Executive of CBMM, Dr Nelson Alcantara, President of ABM, and Professor Michael Khor from Nanyang Technological University, Malaysia. The panel was chaired by Dr Phil Bischler, Chairman of the IOM3 Local Affairs Board. The audience included members of the UK High Commission, university personnel and local dignitaries.

In addition to the all expenses paid trip to Sao Paulo, Mitali collected a MacBook Air and £1,500. Second and third places went to Dyllon Randall from South Africa and Jenni Tilley from the UK, who apart from a MacBook Air, collected £1,000 and £700 respectively. The event was followed by an awards dinner at Praça São Lourenço restaurant. All competitors received commemorative gifts from IOM3 and Rolls-Royce.

The finalists were hosted for five days in Sao Paulo by CBMM. A tour of the city, Butantan Institute and the CBMM mine in the city of Araxá were undertaken, as well as an evening reception at the British Consulate's residence.

Details of all 2011 competition finalists