International honours for George Crammond
Engineering PhD researcher George Crammond has won a top prize in an international student competition run by the Society of Experimental Mechanics in the USA. He received second prize for his paper A Methodology for Evaluating Localised Strains Using High Magnification DIC at the Society’s annual conference. George is only the second non-American student to be recognised by the Society.
He presented his research to a panel of judges at the conference near Los Angeles, competing against students from leading US universities including John Hopkins, Purdue and the Californian Institute of Technology.
"I was surprised and delighted to win the prize, especially as it is rare for non-Americans to be honoured," says George. "The standard in the competition was really high, so it's great that the quality of my work, and the many hours spent in the laboratory at the University of Southampton, have been recognised."
George works on a major three year project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). He is investigating the initiation of complex damage in adhesive joints between composite materials, when subjected to extreme loading conditions in the laboratory.
Earlier in his PhD, George also won the Stanley Gray Fellowship from the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) in support of his studies; it was worth £12,000 over three years. The Fellowship is awarded each year to a student of marine engineering, science or technology who is judged to be of outstanding potential. He took his first degree at the University of Southampton; a MEng in Ship Science, before embarking on his PhD.