Surrey EngD student wins prestigious Royal Commission 1851 Fellowship
The Fellowship was awarded to Harry Cronin by Mr Bernard Taylor DL FRSC, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners at a special ceremony on 14th October. Harry is undertaking an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) through Surrey’s EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Micro-and Nanomaterials and Technologies (MiNMaT). His EngD is being supervised by Professor Ravi Silva, Director of the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI).
Taking the form of additional funding for the recipient over three years and an honorarium of £10k to his or her University on graduation, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851’s Industrial Fellowships are aimed at encouraging profitable innovation and creativity in British industry. They are awarded to exceptional graduates with the potential to make an outstanding contribution to industry via a programme of doctoral level research.
During his EngD, Harry has worked as a Research Engineer for DZP Technologies, where he has focused on investigating new materials for printable solar cells. The EngD is a four-year programme which enables graduates to undertake a research project with an industrial organisation while visiting the University regularly for short courses and experimental work.
Having been nominated by the Centre, Harry was awarded the Fellowship following a lengthy assessment process, which included an interview with three eminent scientists and engineers.
Harry says, “I am deeply honoured to be awarded this prestigious Fellowship. This is a very exciting time for solar research and with the opportunities offered by being part of the 1851 family I hope to be able to make a real difference. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors at the ATI and the team at the CDT in MiNMaT for all their hard work and invaluable help so far.”
Professor Silva comments, “The research is building on a foundation of research council and industry funded work, perfect for exploitation via an SME like DZP. Harry is the ideal candidate to progress this to the next stage in this very exciting time for solar research.”
Professor Julie Yeomans, Director of the CDT in MiNMaT, says, “Everyone in the Centre is extremely proud of Harry’s achievements. This is a very prestigious Fellowship and Harry is a very worthy recipient. Not only is he an excellent scientist but also a very collegiate member of our community. This is the second such award to a student of the Centre in the last four years, so we are hoping that we’ve started a winning streak. We certainly look forward to hearing about how Harry uses this opportunity to further his research and his personal development.”
The Industrial Fellowship is given by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, which was appointed in 1850 under Prince Albert to organise the first world trade fair. Following the success of the ‘Great Exhibition’ it was established in perpetuity to use the profits to ‘increase the means of industrial education and extend the influence of science and art upon productive industry’. Today it distributes some £2m a year, primarily through fellowships supporting research by the brightest scientists and engineers.
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