For over thirty years, SCI has supported and recognised the excellence of early career people, by aiding their studies in the form of an SCI Scholarship.
Since 1985, over 68 scholarships have been awarded which have not only given the recipients financial assistance, but have enabled them to broaden their network as well as strengthen their skills and knowledge. SCI Scholars receive access to publishing and mentoring opportunities and are given a platform to present their work amongst esteemed scientists and industrialists, thus raising their profile within the scientific community. In the past eight years alone, SCI has generously bequeathed over £115,000 of its charitable funds to SCI Scholars and the scientists of the future.
Image: Angelica with the centrifuge she purchased with her SCI Scholarship money
Angelica Orsi was awarded an SCI Scholarship in 2015. At the end of their first year, SCI Scholars present an end of year report to SCI. Read on to find out more about what Angelica has done in her first year as an SCI Scholar.
‘Receiving the SCI Scholarship last year was a memorable and rewarding occasion. It has enabled me to become involved in more SCI activities after becoming a committee member of the SCI Scotland Group and becoming an SCI Ambassador at the University of St Andrews. I was also given opportunities to attend the College of Scholars Day 2015 (London), the SCI AGM 2016 (London) and the Day of Science and Careers Scotland 2016 (Glasgow), for which I wrote the post event press article for the SCI website. Attendance at these events has given me opportunities to meet young researchers like myself as well as scientists who have experience in working for various companies, allowing me to learn first-hand what working for a scientific company would be like. The Day of Science and Careers Scotland event certainly opened my eyes to the numerous scientific SMEs that are based in Scotland. I have enjoyed and valued meeting the support staff at SCI who organised the events that I attended and who are such an important part of this respected institution. The two visits to SCI’s headquarters in Belgrave Square allowed a close up view of its beautifully designed, historical exterior and interior rooms, many with original features. The financial support that SCI provided in my first year as a Scholar, allowed me to part fund the cost of traveling to conferences and events and to purchase a benchtop laboratory centrifuge (Thermo Fisher Scientific).
‘My PhD research, carried out in the group of Professor Paul Wright at the University of St Andrews, is based on synthesising metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as nanoparticles, with exceptional CO2 adsorption capacities and integrate them into polymer-based membranes for CO2 capture and separation from flue streams of power plants. This work contributes to a larger research collaboration, which has allowed me to present my work at meetings throughout Europe and contribute to joint journal articles. A highlight from this past year was attending a session at the Diamond Light Source to analyse, by infrared (IR) micro-spectroscopy, the gas adsorption behaviour of materials I had synthesised. In September of this year, I shall be presenting a poster at the International MOF conference (California) based on a new zeolitic imidazolate framework (a sub-group of MOFs) which has high CO2 uptake at low pressures and a journal article covering this work is in progress.
‘In the coming year I am looking forward to being ‘matched’ with a mentor for the SCI Mentoring Programme pilot scheme that will no doubt be of great assistance in navigating future career decisions. I would like to thank SCI once again for the continuous new opportunities that I have been/am being provided with that stem from the SCI Scholarship.’
Angelica Orsi,
SCI Scholar 2015-2017
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