Engineer announced as ISIS Springboard Award winner
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Dr William Sharratt, a lecturer in Soft Materials in the University’s School of Engineering, has been named as an ISIS Springboard award winner.
The Springboard awards are presented by the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, a world-leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences.
The ISIS Springboard awards are new awards designed to support and encourage early-career researchers to use neutrons and muons in their research.
Chosen following a competitive process, Dr Sharratt’s award will provide him with funding to present ISIS research at conferences, a case study highlighting their research and the chance to spend an extended period at ISIS, amongst other benefits.
Dr Sharratt uses neutrons to study how polymers and surfactants (soaps) assemble in liquids in order to develop new materials.
He has used small-angle neutron scattering to investigate polymer blends with potential applications in separation membranes, and surfactant molecules with a variety of industrial uses.
His future research will investigate polymeric hydrogels to develop new materials that mimic biological tissues for medical applications.
Dr Sharratt said: “This award will support me in establishing an independent research programme using neutron scattering to investigate hydrogels.
“It will also help to support the technical development of sample environment equipment to open up new types of neutron scattering measurements for myself and other researchers in this area.”
Details of the 2024 process and benefits of an Award can be found on the ISIS website. There will be a second call for Springboard Award applications in late 2025.
The other ISIS Springboard award winners are Shurui Miao from the University of Oxford and Jennifer Johnstone-Hack from the University of Sheffield.