Analytical Chemistry Trust Bursaries for Keele students

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Posted on 08 April 2013

Students with bursaries Joint research initiative between Dr Aleksandar Radu, Dr Fotis Sgouridis and Dr Sami Ullah (within the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences) was recently recognized by the Analytical Chemistry Trust. The trust awarded £2880 for sponsoring two second-year undergraduate students to gain transferable research skills during the summer and to encourage them to consider careers in Analytical Chemistry. This award also contributes to showcasing the profile of Keele University being supportive of high quality undergraduate research.

This year winners of the bursary are Robert Price from Chemistry and Max Reboul from Applied Environmental Sciences. Robert is also a winner of John Tebby first year Chemistry prize for his outstanding performance during his first year of study. His research work during the summer will be supervised by Dr Radu. Robert’s project will involve elucidating response characteristics of “adaptable sensors”. The latter are sensors capable of adapting their response characteristics relative to the need of analysis and sensing environment. Sensor characteristics are controlled by the user by utilizing specific external stimulus. Sensors that Robert will study will utilize light as external stimulus in order to externally control sensor’s selectivity and sensitivity.

Max Reboul will undertake his research on ‘Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA: Development of the microdiffusion-hypobromite oxidation technique for determining 15N isotope in ammonium in different soil types’. His research work will be supervised by Dr Sgouridis and Dr Ullah. The expected output would be to evaluate the suitability of the method for adoption as a ‘routine’ for the quantification of DNRA under field conditions. DNRA is regarded as nitrogen conservation mechanism in soils that helps in reducing pollution of water resources. A future collaborative research on the utilization of adaptable sensors for small-scale characterisation of reactive nitrogen species in soils and sediments would also be explored.

Pictured from left to right: Dr Aleksandar Radu, Robert Price, Dr Fotis Sgouridis, and Max Reboul.

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