Young Diamond Scientists SET for Britain

Three young Diamond scientists have taken part in the SET for Britain competitions and exhibitions held at the House of Parliament on 8th March 2010. The annual event enabled them to showcase their research to Members of both Houses of Parliament and more largely to the British science community.

Dr Julia Parker, senior support scientist on the High Resolution Powder Diffraction beamline (I11), Dr Jen Hiller, senior support scientist on the Non-Crystalline Diffraction beamline (I22), and Dr Claire Pizzey, industrial liaison scientist, successfully applied to the selective event and were able to display their posters at the exhibition.

Dr Jen Hiller

The aim of SET for Britain is to promote and support Britain’s early-stage and early-career research scientists, engineers and technologists, recognizing in them Britain’s future scientific and technological leaders. The poster exhibition, traditionally held in the House of Commons Terrace Marquee, gives the researchers the opportunity to present their work to Members of both Houses and to initiate a dialogue with them.

The three posters illustrated the diversity of the research carried out at Diamond. Dr Hiller showed how she has worked with the nearby Central Laser Facility to create a pair of optical tweezers using two laser beams that trap tiny particles, rotate them in three dimensions and apply very small amounts of force. This optical trap should be particularly helpful when performing microfocus X-ray scattering on tiny samples, where mounting has always been a problem as the medium used to hold the sample (wax or glue for instance) tends to generate an important signal at small angles. Dr Hiller says, “These tweezers could be used to look at a single grain of starch in order to help the archaeologist understand why some of them survive so long.”

Dr Julia Parker

Dr Parker explained why mussels were favourites of Diamond’s scientists: their shells, produced through a robust and environmentally friendly process, are able to resist high water pressures, predators and changing chemical environments. Diamond scientists are studying how this shell is formed, paying particular attention to the stability of one of its main mineral components, aragonite, and its tendency to transform into a different mineral, calcite, when heated. Dr Parker says, “Understanding the design, synthesis and transformation of mussel shell can help us to come up with new biomedical framework materials (for instance to encourage bone regeneration) as well as stronger composites for other engineering and domestic applications.”

Finally Dr Pizzey shone a light on new solar cell materials: semi-conducting polymers can be coated onto flexible substrates to create polymer photovoltaic films. But the preparation conditions of these devices can influence their nanoscale structure which, in turn, impacts their performances. Diamond scientists are developing the emerging grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GI-SAXS) technique which is designed to probe the nanoscale structure of thin films. Dr Pizzey explains, “GI-SAXS is ideally suited to the investigation of these complex composite materials. And, using in-situ real time studies of the changes in morphology during the coating process itself, we can gain an insight into the mechanism by which the processing conditions can affect the resulting nanoscale structures of organic photovoltaic films.”

Dr Claire Pizzey

Drs Hiller, Parker and Pizzey are far from newcomers when it comes to outreach and public engagement in science activities, whether it be Inside Diamond days, Science Oxford Live, or the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and see it as an integral part of their work. Dr Hiller comments, “It gives you a different perspective and it is part of our responsibility as practising scientists to give back to society.”

If you are interested in showcasing work done at Diamond, please contact the communications team on 01235 778639 or sarah.bucknall@diamond.ac.uk