RMS Summer Studentship Placements Announced

To celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Royal Microscopical Society in 2014, the RMS launched their new Summer Studentship programme. This scheme was designed to help undergraduates further their studies and gain invaluable experience in their chosen field of study to add to their CV. Four Summer Studentships were offered to be used in the summer of 2017, two for life sciences projects and two for physical sciences projects. Professor Chris Hawes HonFRMS, the RMS Executive Honorary Secretary said “We had an unprecedented number of applications this year which made it very difficult to make the final decision! These four projects span a great range of microscopy techniques and will help to further some really interesting research. I wish all four students the best of luck with their summer work and hope that they will find it really enjoyable and worthwhile.”

Physical Sciences Studentships

William Cartwright is a 3rd year Masters student in Physics at the University of Durham. William will be using a novel atomic force microscopy measurement tool to investigate the effect of curvature on the mechanical properties of synthetic extracellular vesicles, a promising tool for nanomedicine.

Yekuan Shentu is in his 3rd year of a Masters in Engineering at the University of Oxford and will use this studentship to conduct a project combining academia and industry. He will spend time in Oxford and at Deben UK using advanced in situ microscopy techniques to characterise the high rate behaviour of polymers under quasistatic conditions.

Life Sciences Studentships

Nikita Patel is in the 3rd year of her Masters in Pharmacology at Imperial College London. In a project conceived by Nikita, she will further investigate the potential use of mesenchymal stem cells and will use multicolour 3D confocal microscopy to image the lung and spleen in and ex vivo and intravital microscopy to gather completely novel data.

Vinayak Ramdhun is a 2nd year undergraduate at the University of Leicester studying Medical Biochemistry. Sparked by his interest in the central principle of molecular biology, Vinayak will use single-molecule microscopy to dissect the mechanism of promote melting by human GTfs and Pol II in mRNA transcription.

The Royal Microscopical Society is a Charity dedicated to advancing science, developing careers and supporting wider understanding of science and microscopy and the Summer Studentships are part of its active Outreach programme www.rms.org.uk/outreach

Applications for 2018 Summer Studentships are not currently open but further information can be found at http://www.rms.org.uk/outreach/SummerStudentship