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Congratulations to Nick Kay from Lancaster University, who won the NPL sponsored award for the Best Physics Student at the 2012 Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Student of the Year Awards.

Martyn Sené, NPL's Deputy Director and Director of 
Operations, presenting Nick Kay, Lancaster University 
with the NPL sponsored award for the Best Physics Student 
at the 2012 Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) 
Student of the Year Awards (image courtesy of Cyril Bruneau)

NPL's Deputy Director and Director of Operations, Martyn Sené, presented Nick Kay with the award at a glittering ceremony in Kensington Town Hall on 26 September. Nick has recently completed an MPhys project at Lancaster on the nanomechanics of graphene and 2D materials, and won the award for his work on 'The behaviour of graphene nano trampolines'. He now plans to continue his research through a PhD position at NowNano, the North West Nanoscience Doctoral Training Centre.

Also shortlisted for the Physics award were Gordon McFadzean from the University of St Andrews, for work on 'Population fluctuation driven extinction in coupled population dynamics', and Christopher Wade from the University of Cambridge, for work on 'Contrast mechanisms in scanning helium microscopy'.

The SET Awards are supported by industry and leading scientific and technical institutions. They provide a showcase for educational excellence by publicly recognising the exceptional achievements of students, and their universities. In 2012, more than 500 entries were received from over 100 universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and 42 students were shortlisted in 15 different categories.