South Africa finalist wins online 2023 YPWLC final

Lodewikus Vorster from South Africa won the 2023 online Young Persons' World Lecture Competition.

5 finalists from around the world, all winners of their respective national and regional finals competed in the online Young Persons' Lecture Competition on Wednesday 8 November.

Finalists' presentations covered a wide spread of topics from polymers as self-healing materials, effects of thermal shock on rocks and novel energy absorption on 3D printed polymer blend systems to co-electrospinning for vascular patch development and pitting corrosion.

The winner was Lodewikus Vorster from South Africa with his presentation on 'Cyclic potentiodynamic polarization testing of TIG welded 316L stainless steel for characterization of pitting corrosion'. Second place went to Kugambikaii Vangetaraman from Malaysia with 'Band aids for blood vessels: Co-electrospinning of polyurethane/chitosan & polyvinyl alcohol/elastin for vascular patch development' and Georgina Burgoyne Morris from the UK took third place with 'Stimuli-responsive polymers as self-healing materials'.

IOM3 President, Dr Kate Thornton said, 'The Young Persons' World Lecture Competition was, yet again, an outstanding event. Thank you to all those who participated for their excellent talks. The ability to convey complex scientific concepts to a diverse audience is more important now than ever. I can genuinely say that I learnt at least one thing from each of the presenters and left feeling confident in the next generation of science communicators. Thank you to everyone involved for making this a successful event. I can't wait for next year!'.

'I feel extremely proud to have taken part in this amazing competition and I am looking forward to what the future holds' said Lodewikus Vorster.

Dr Aimee Goodall (Chair, SEC Group) and Martyn Jones (Chair, Members' Board) were also on the panel and the event was chaired by Asst Prof Ilija Rasovic (Vice-Chair, SEC Group).

For more information on the Young Persons' Lecture Competition and to watch the finalists' presentations, visit: