Grants to Support Knowledge Exchange - Emilia Russell

Emilia Russell, 2024 Grant to Support Knowledge Exchange recipient shares her experience.

This July I was fortunate enough to attend the FEMS Junior EUROMAT 2024 conference in Manchester, UK, thanks to the support from the IOM3 Grants to Support Knowledge Exchange.

This is a version of the extremely prestigious EUROMAT conference, specifically tailored to early careers researches and was an incredible opportunity for me to not only learn about cutting edge materials research, but also to meet a number of potential collaborators from all across Europe. I would not have dreamt of being able to attend if it hadn’t been for the financial support offered by IOM3. During this conference, I also had the privilege of being able to represent  IOM3 in the FEMS Masters Thesis Award final which was an honour and a great experience practising presenting my research, skills that I know will come in handy in my future in academia.

I think the main highlight for me were the inspirational keynote speakers, especially Professor Radha Boya, whose research is very aligned with mine. She made sure to comment on just how long it can take to get working samples when researching 2D materials, which is definitely a challenge I too have faced.

I would really recommend anyone wanting to attend a conference etc who is discouraged by the costs to consider applying to this grant because it was a huge assistance to me.