Rideal Travel Bursary Recipient, Mohmed Mulla, Reports from Boston, USA

In 2016, Mohmed Mulla was awarded a Rideal Travel Bursary for his attendance at the 90^th ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium which was held at Harvard University, Boston, USA between 5 and 8 June 2016. Here, he tells us how his attendance at the symposium gave him the chance to meet a range of US based academics and facilitated a future research trip to Japan.

‘Being awarded with a Rideal Travel Bursary made it possible for me to travel to Boston, MA, USA to attend the 90^th ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium, 2016, held at Harvard University.

‘The ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium is a topical meeting bringing together interdisciplinary researchers in academia and industry with a common interest in particles and complex fluids, interfacial phenomena and chemistry, soft-matter science and environmental science. The three-day meeting had two Plenary and two Award lectures, 15 concurrent technical sessions, and a poster session. Around 700 delegates, made up of academics, industrialist, students and postdocs, attended the conference.

‘I was selected to deliver an oral presentation entitled ‘Preparation and Characterisation of Model Colloidal Inkjet Inks’, in a technical break-out session of specific interest to my work. Technically, this talk discussed how factors such as solids concentration, and solvent type of model inks, impact their jetting behaviour. Not only did this serve as a fantastic opportunity to present at an international conference (an invaluable part of my development as an independent researcher), but also provided the perfect platform to discuss my work, and network with experts in the field. As part of my PhD, I have been in discussion with a group in Japan who specialise in microfluidics. Their attendance at the conference allowed us to finally meet face to face and has hopefully facilitated a research trip to their group. Attending this conference (specifically) in the US, gave me the chance to talk to a range of academics based in the US. I deemed this extremely useful and insightful, as I am nearing the end of my PhD and am weighing up my future career prospects in academia.

‘Attending the conference also gave me the opportunity to attend a range of related and also more eclectic talks across colloid science. Colloid science is a truly interdisciplinary area of research, and the chance to see so many talks across the three days helped to inspire my work in new and exciting directions.

‘Overall the conference proved to be an extremely valuable experience, coming at the right time in my PhD. I am nearing the end of my third year of a 3.5 year course, therefore I had the confidence to present a coherent body of work at an international conference. I am very grateful to the Rideal Trust for awarding me this travel grant and helping me to attend this international conference. Without this funding, it would not have been possible for me to take this important step towards my future, and begin to establish myself as a scientific researcher.’

Mohmed Mulla
PhD Student, University of Leeds

Related Links:

• SCI Travel Bursaries
• SCI Awards
• SCI Colloid and Surface Chemistry Group