Cohen Award – Christina Katsiva
PhD Student at UCL and Cohen Award winner 2024
PhD Student Christina Katsiva’s research centres on the development of novel medical
imaging methods to track cell therapies, in-vivo, for the treatment of Lung Cancer. As Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, cell therapies could provide a new avenue of treatment options for patients. A major limiting factor in cell treatments is the distribution of the cells within patients is currently unknown. Christina utilises direct labelling strategies with imaging agents so the cells can be tracked. Tracking allows for the assessment in-vivo using a multitude of different imaging platforms (PET/SPECT/CT, optical) across scale (whole body to micrometre range). WCSIM was proud to grant Christina the prestigious Cohen award in recognition of her work and to assist Christina in further research.
Beloe Fellow 2023 – Dr Gema Vera Gonzalez
Research Associate Imperial College London and Beloe Fellow 2023
Dr Gema Vera Gonzalez is a Research Associate at Imperial College London, and part of the I-X Centre for AI in Science. She currently works on AI applied to automation in the field of neuroscience. Particularly, she works on developing a system that can automatically record and stimulate specific neurons, which will allow researchers to ascertain the role of certain cell types in normal and abnormal brain behaviour. Her work is possible thanks to both the ‘Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship’ and the ‘Beloe Fellowship’ from WCSIM. She also works as Adjunct Assistant Professor at University of Notre Dame in London. She submitted her PhD in neurotechnology in the Department of Bioengineering at ICL at the beginning of 2023. She did her MSc in Biomedical Engineering at ETH with a focus on bioelectronics and her BSc in Biomedical Engineering at UC3M. She also has experience researching in other laboratories at McGill University, PolyU and UC Irvine.
Arkwright Engineering Scholarships and Smallpeice Trust – 2023
WCSIM sponsors four Arkwright Scholars per year through the Smallpeice Trust for two years. We also invite those Scholars to become Livery Apprentices. The Arkwright Scholarships Trust is an independent UK-wide charity that identifies, inspires and nurtures the country’s future leaders in engineering and technical design. It does this by awarding Scholarships through rigorous selection to outstanding technology-minded school students.
Post-Graduate Scholar – Sam White
Post-Graduate Scholar 2022
It was a great honour to have received the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers (WCSIM) Post Graduate Scholarship in 2022 for my PhD research. My project sought to tackling the challenge of meeting the escalating global demand for safe, environmentally conscious, and long-term radioactive waste disposal. Through this research I successfully demonstrated the use oof robotic systems, sensors, and AI integration, to autonomously address this challenge without the need for human intervention. Since then, my journey within the livery has been deeply rewarding. It is a great society full of like-minded and interesting individuals focused on advancing scientific knowledge and fostering collaboration in the pursuit of innovation and excellence. As an active freeman, I’ve had the privilege of creating and leading the “Manchester SIM hub” network, fostering local engagement by organising visits and meetings for fellow members across the North West.
Primary Engineer…the first step
WCSIM have been working with Primary Engineer for a number of years and each year host two events. Firstly, training for teachers to support STEM activities. Secondly, a celebration day to showcase the vehicles the children have designed during the term. The vehicles are tested and the livery mentors and other members interview the children then award prizes for best vehicles and understanding of engineering in various age categories. This is a very inspiring day and shows what wonderful young talent is out there.
We encourage any engineering focussed freemen or Liverymen to become a mentor in this programme.
Click here to see their latest Impact Report.