Jason Williams took the £750 prize in the Chemistry category after presenting his research to dozens of politicians and a panel of expert judges, as part of the poster competition STEM for BRITAIN.
His research, which focuses on the use of quantum cascade laser microscopy, was judged against 29 other shortlisted researchers’ work and came out as one of the three winners.
Jason said, “It’s been great, having to encapsulate your research in a different way from how you’re normally used to. Having to talk about the science of things to lay people and try and get it to a level that’s understandable by everyone, so it’s a very different experience from what I’ve done before.”
On winning the bronze award he said, “It’s fantastic. I’ve just submitted my thesis a couple of weeks ago so it’s a great end to my PhD. Very unexpected but fantastic.”
Jason was one of five Strathclyde researchers chosen to present in the competition at Westminster. Two others – Julia Hyslop and Hannah Lithgow – are, along with Jason, students on the Strathclyde’s collaborative chemistry programme with pharmaceutical company GSK, and will be competing in the Chemistry category. They were joined in the Engineering category by Dr Mohammed Afsar, a Chancellor’s Fellow in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and in the Maths category by Ainsley Miller, a PhD student in Strathclyde’s Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering.
STEM for Britain was previously titled SET for Britain, a competition in which Strathclyde has enjoyed extensive success in recent years.
In 2016, Joanna Sadler won the gold medal in the Chemistry category of the SET for Britain awards poster competition at Westminster, while Joshua Barham received the silver medal in the same category. They followed Natalie Theodoulou, winner of the Chemistry silver in 2015, Graham Robertson, winner of the Biology gold in 2014, and Jeannette Heiligers, winner of the Engineering gold in 2012.
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