Nuffield students win at the Big Bang UK Science and Engineering Competition

By Nuffield Foundation

Congratulations to all of our Nuffield Research Placement students who were finalists in last week’s Big Bang Competition at the NEC in Birmingham.

We were delighted to see four of our students win prizes. Nuffield student Sayeed Ahmed from Woodhouse College scooped the special award prize for his project on pressure effects on the physiochemical properties of nanoparticles. Sayeed will now be representing the UK at the London International Youth Science Forum this summer.

Other Nuffield students who won in the senior science category included Andrew Hutchinson from Radcliffe School for his project on a pilot study into siRNA (inorganic) nanomedicine targeting cancer treatment and Poppy Bradley from Chigwell School for her project on characterising differences between paediatric and adult airway mucosa. Alanah Ferguson from Kirkcaldy High School was a runner up of the Water Prize with her project on Laboratory Experiments of a Submerged Wave Energy Device.

About Nuffield Research Placements

Nuffield Research Placements provide over 1,100 placements each year. We work with a wide range of employers, including universities and research institutes, local government and public sector agencies, tech and pharmaceutical companies, think tanks and market research agencies to facilitate placements.

We support post-16 students in full-time education in a maintained school or further education college in the UK who do not have a family history of higher education and are from lower socio-economic backgrounds to participate in the programme. The Nuffield Foundation covers travel costs for all students and provides an additional bursary for those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

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We improve people’s lives by funding research that informs social policy, primarily in Education, Welfare and Justice. We also fund student programmes that give young people skills and confidence in science and research.

We offer our grant-holders the freedom to frame questions and enable new thinking. Our research must stand up to rigorous academic scrutiny, but we understand that to be successful in effecting change, it also needs to be relevant to people’s experience.

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