PhD students Robert Oxford Pope and Cameron Abercromby have been jointly awarded the Hexcel Prize for the best CoSEM CDT three-month research project.
As part of the CoSEM CDT programme, students complete a 3-month research project following nine months of taught units in their first year. This early research experience offers a valuable opportunity to conduct research before embarking on their PhD projects.
Robert was recognised for his project titled “Embedding vascular networks in carbon composites for tracking detector thermal management”, supervised by Dr Ben Woods, Dr Mark Schenk, Dr Laura Pickard, and Dr Diego Alvarez Feito. Reflecting on the award, Robert said:
"I was very grateful to be awarded this year's Hexcel Best Research Project for my work on improving the thermal management of detectors at CERN's Large Hadron Collider."
Cameron received the prize for his project titled “Manufacture and characterisation of tow-based discontinuous carbon fibre preforms for high performance, sustainable mass production applications”, supervised by Dr Iryna Tretiak, Professor Michael Wisnom, Dr Michael O'Leary, and Dr Petar Zivkovic.
Cameron said “I was honoured to receive the award from Hexcel. It was great to be able to discuss the summer research report with Alex. The research project was a good introduction into working with discontinuous composites and has provided a strong foundation for the rest of my PhD”.
Dr Alex Baidak, Vice President – R&T Aeromatrix and Adhesives at Hexcel, met with the Robert and Cameron and said: “Hexcel is delighted to sponsor the prize for the best CoSEM CDT research project at Bristol. Hexcel recognises the key research and training roles played by the University of Bristol. It was a great pleasure to meet and hear about the work of the two 2025 winners, Cameron and Robert. We are pleased to congratulate them both for their outstanding work and wish them continued success in their PhD studies.”
Congratulations to Robert and Cameron on this well-deserved recognition!
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