Travel grant recipients
December 2020 recipients
The 2020 Training Grant for Early Career Researchers program awarded grants of up to €500 to 17 recipients to attend a training course, conference, workshop or similar event and develop an area of their research skillset.
Communications Biology
Sarangi Athukorala
University of Peradeniya
Sarangi’s research is primarily focused on the use of microorganisms towards sustainable development. She is undertaking training in culture and isolation methods organised by Canadian Phycological Culture Center, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Salum Azizi
Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College
Salum’s study aims at laboratory and field evaluation of new generation blankets, treated with pyrethroid and a synergist, for the control of malaria vectors. He is attending PCR Boot Camp, organised by Kenya Institute of Bioinformatics, to aid in his research and also to train undergraduates on PCR techniques in his home institute.
Celia Moffat Joel Matyanga
University of Zimbabwe
Celia is investigating the effect of African potato on pharmacokinetic drug profiles of Tenofovir and Lamivudin in clinical trial with HIV patients. She is undertaking a course on The Phoenix WinNonlin software application organised by Certara University, Princeton.
Communications Chemistry
Thecla Ayoka
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Thecla works on the systematic identification of antioxidant and hepatocurative lead compounds in two Nigerian medicinal plants, i.e. Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides and Vitex donniana, using various chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. She will attend a data analysis training course.
Claudia Bonfio
University of Cambridge
Claudia’s research goal is to build communities of primitive cells capable of modern cellular behaviours. Thereby she aims to improve our understanding of how modern cells evolved and learnt to communicate. She will attend a Faraday Discussion on peptide-membrane interactions.
Toby Waldron Clarke
University of Nottingham
Toby studies flow chemistry for reactions involving platinum-group metal-catalysts that are typically important in the chemical industry. His aim is to apply flow chemistry to thermal, photochemical and electrochemical reactions to achieve more sustainable manufacturing. He will attend an organic electrochemistry virtual short course.
Communications Earth & Environment
Chuck Chuan Ng
Xiamen University Malaysia
Chuck's research interests include environmental pollution, bioremediation and soil-water-plant interactions. He is also interested in the development of green technology and the policy, ethics and awareness of sustainability issues. He will attend the 2021 Potsdam Summer School on Water: Our Global Common Good – The Hydrosphere across Land and Sea.
Beatrice Otunola
University of the Free State
Beatrice's research focusses on phytoremediation and the use of clay adsorption techniques to treat heavy metal contaminated soil and water. Her interests include environmental management and the development of sustainable remediation solutions. She will use the training grant to complete the NEBOSH Environmental Management Certificate.
Pamela Pairo
Argentine National Research Council (CONICET)
Pamela's research centres around community ecology and understanding how human activities impact community structure and species distributions. She is also interested in the relationship between biodiversity patterns and environmental variables. She will attend the OpenGeoHub Summer School.
Abigail Smith
University of Tasmania - Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
Abigail's research investigates the role of marine animals in ocean nutrient cycling to inform resource management and biogeochemical models. In particular, she studies how iron is recycled in the Southern Ocean and the impacts of this on ocean productivity. She will attend the 2021 Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) Summer School.
Communications Materials
Fabio Lisi
University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Fabio's research is focused on developing nanomaterials and functional coatings for biomedical and sensing applications, such as blood sensors for viral and bacterial infections, and sensors for the detection of pollutants in water and food spoilage. He will attend the Plant Environmental Physiology Group Workshop, where he will learn plant physiology, helping him develop hybrid living sensors that combine the plants’ natural processes with nanoelectronic materials.
Huiyu Liu
ShanghaiTech University
Huiyu is developing new organic molecular ferroelectrics and stimuli-responsive molecular materials for organic energy storage, using X-ray and electron diffraction techniques to establish a relationship between structural properties and material performance. She will attend the 15th International conference on materials chemistry.
Anna Lucia Pellegrino
Università degli Studi di Catania
Anna works on testing and optimization of different synthesis strategies, such as metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, sol-gel and precipitation method, with the aim of developing new functional materials for green and sustainable energy production. She will use the training grant to cover her participation to the 2020 Virtual MRS Spring/Fall Meeting.
Akarsh Verma
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Akarsh's research is focused on developing atomistic models for molecular dynamics simulations, with the aim of characterizing and altering the properties of graphene-based nanocomposites by artificially inducing geometrical defects such as grain boundaries and fractures. He will use the training grant to cover his participation to the 2020 Virtual MRS Spring/Fall Meeting.
Communications Physics
Ahmed Idda
University of Bechar
Ahmed is currently completing his PhD in in solar energy. His research focuses on developing new strategies to improve the performance of thin-film solar cells based on amorphous silicon. He will use the training grant to complete the PA-CEMP Energy Management Professional Certificate.
Andrea Richaud
International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA)
Andrea is a postdoctoral researcher since February 2020. His research field is topological phases of quantum matter, with a focus on SU(N) fermionic systems and their possible use as quantum simulators of multiband solid-state models. He is passionate about Science Communication and animal welfare. The training grant will allow him to attend the Doctoral school "Topological Quantum Matter: theory and applications"
Panagiotis Stamoulis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Stamoulis is doing his PhD in experimental particle physics, trying to understand how neutrinos change flavors. He is interested in the design of detectors' electronics and automatic control through embedded systems. He will use the training grant to attend the Embedded Systems Design one-year course at the Hellenic Open University.
December 2019 recipients
Abiola Isawumi, Samima Khatun and Lara Martini were the recipients of the 2019 Communications journals travel grants for early career researchers. They each received a grant of €2,500 to support their attendance at an international conference and present their work.
Biology
Abiola Isawumi was awarded the Communications Biology grant. Abiola is a post-PhD fellow using whole-genome sequencing to study antimicrobial resistance in Klebsiella oxytoca from hospital-acquired infections with the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens at the University of Ghana. He will attend the Drug Resistance Gordon Research Conference in Rhode Island, USA.
Chemistry
Samima Khatun was awarded the Communications Chemistry grant. Samima recently completed her PhD research on thermodynamic and spectroscopic studies on interactions in protein ligand systems at Aligarh Muslim University in India. She will attend the 26th International Conference on Chemical Thermodynamics in London, UK.
Physics
Lara Martini was awarded the Communications Physics grant. Lara is currently completing her PhD at National University of Rosario (UNR) and Institute of Physics Rosario (CONICET - UNR) in Argentina, studying delay control in laser-assisted photoionization of water molecules. She will attend the SPIE Photonics West conference in San Francisco, USA.
December 2018 recipients
Arantxa Rojas, Őzgűl Gők, and Madhuchhanda Brahma were the recipients for the 2018 Communications journals travel grants for early career researchers. They each received a grant of €2,500 to support their attendance at an international conference and present their work.
Biology
Arantxa Rojas was awarded the Communications Biology grant. At the time of the award, Arantxa was completing her thesis on regulation of miRNA biogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Rosario (IBR) in Argentina. She attended the 24th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society in Krakow, Poland.
Chemistry
Őzgűl Gők was awarded the Communications Chemistry grant. Őzgűl is an Assistant Professor at Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar Universty in Istanbul where her research focuses on the design of synthetic and natural biomaterials for both drug delivery and regeneration. She attended the Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting in Seattle, USA.
Physics
Madhuchhanda Brahma was awarded the Communications Physics grant. At the time of the award, Madhuchhanda was completing her thesis on multiscale modeling of quantum transport in 2D material based MOS transistors at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. She attended the International Workshop on Computational Nanotechnology in Illinois, USA.
