UC postgrad heads to radiation research forum
22 September 2011
Fifth-year chemical and process engineering student Sophia Mellsop, from Whangamata, has been given the opportunity of a lifetime.
Fifth-year chemical and process engineering student Sophia Mellsop, from Whangamata, has been given the opportunity of a lifetime.
The PhD student, who is researching catalysts, is about to spend 10 days at the Cheiron School being held at the Spring-8 synchotron radiation facility in Hyogo, Japan.
The annual school - being held from 26 September to 5 October - is run by the Asia-Oceania Forum for Synchotron Radiation Research (AOFSRR). The aim of the school is to provide useful and basic knowledge of synchrotron radiation science and technology.
Sophia’s trip has been fully funded including flights to and from Japan as well as all accommodation expenses.
“It’s great to meet a whole group of people doing similar research,” she said.
Her postgraduate supervisor Dr Aaron Marshall (Chemical and Process Engineering) said having this experience early in her research project “gives Sophia the opportunity to utilise these advanced analysis techniques in her research on electrocatalytic materials for the oxygen evolution reaction. This will undoubtedly benefit her current research work.”
In her research Sophia is hoping to use a synchrotron to analyse the structure of catalysts but later hopes to get into nano particles.
The Cheiron School allows students to attend a number of lectures followed by round-table discussions with experts. There will also be practical laboratory courses attendees can take part in.
Dr Marshall said Sophia would be the fourth student from UC to attend the Cheiron School.
For more information please contact:
comms@canterbury.ac.nz.
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