ILCaMS PhD Student follows up award with prestigious national medal
Posted on: 28 April 2023 in Blog
ILCaMS' Devon Crouch has followed up his Gold Medal award at the recent STEM for Britain Conference, and been awarded the Westminster Medal for overall best presentation at the event.
Devon Crouch, PhD Student in ILCaMS department of Eye and Vision Science, recently attended the STEM for Britain exhibition as a representative of the University presenting his work on the benefits of ‘Using Biomaterials to Tackle Glaucoma’. Not only did Devon receive the Gold Medal award for best poster at the exhibition in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences category, he has since been awarded the Westminster Medal, meaning his presentation was deemed to be the most impressive among the shortlist of winners in each category at the event.
We spoke to Devon to ask him about the event, his research, and his reaction to receiving this prestigious honour:
Can you tell us about the event, and explain how you were selected to represent the University at this conference?
STEM for Britain is an exhibition organised by the parliamentary & scientific committee to give MPs an insight into the research work being undertaken in UK universities by early-career researchers. I submitted an abstract to the committee explaining my research, where I was shortlisted as a finalist by a panel of experts. The application process also required submission of a referee letter from a supervisor or head of department, which my supervisor Dr Lucy Bosworth kindly submitted on my behalf.
After being selected as one of 30 finalists, I presented my poster at the House of Commons to an audience that included MPs and other senior figures, with my work being presented with the Gold Medal award in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences category. This meant I was automatically shortlisted for the Westminster Medal, which is an overall winners medal selected from the winners of the five categories – Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Engineering. The Society of Chemical Industries (SCI) sponsors the Westminster medal. To make the final selection, the five winners presented their posters to a panel of judges, who asked us to showcase our ability to discuss our research in science communication to a lay audience.
Can you give us more detail on what your presentation was focused on, and what that study/work entails?
The work undertaken for this exhibition was titled “Stop Thief! Using Biomaterials to Tackle Glaucoma”. This research involved making a biomaterial scaffold replicate of the porous tissue instigated in glaucoma known as the trabecular meshwork, using the bio-fabrication technique electrospinning. Here, we had conducted 3D imaging using sophisticated x-ray computed tomography equipment to observe the trabecular meshwork tissue in full. This allowed us to mimic this structure using electrospinning. This device would then be employed in glaucoma research as a 3D in vitro model or as an implantable device for trabecular meshwork regeneration. We showed that our artificial trabecular meshwork mimic could support cell attachment, growth, infiltration and in vivo function.
What did your day at the conference look like?
The exhibition for STEM for Britain was on the 6th of March at the Houses of Commons and for the duration of the event, I met and spoke with MPs, organisers and fellow early-career researchers. It was a memorable day and a very surreal experience.
As for the Westminster medal, this was conducted on Zoom on the 17th of April, where I presented my research poster as a 4-minute presentation. After all of the presentations were finished, I was selected as the winner of the award from the panel of judges (consisting of committee members and MPs) and now get to attend some follow-up events at the Houses of Parliament. The first of these being an awards dinner held on May 10th, where I will formally be presented with the Westminster Medal. The second, on July 10th, where I will attend an evening function and give a 15-minute talk about my PhD research to the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, MPs and the Houses of Lords.
What is your reaction to winning the award, and what does the future hold for your research/project?
Since March 6th, my life has felt like a fever dream. The whole experience was so incredible and surreal and to be a finalist was special enough for me. However, to win not only the STEM for Britain award for my category, but also the overall winner Westminster medal is truly amazing.
As for the future, I feel the world is my oyster, and I am excited for what the future holds. In my immediate future, I plan to finish writing my thesis, prepare for my viva and hopefully an opportunity will arise to stay within my group as a PDRA to continue this really exciting research and work towards a novel therapeutic to cure glaucoma.