Katie Beirns receives Don Claugher Award
Katie Beirns, PhD student at the Rosalind Franklin Institute and the University of Oxford, has been awarded the Don Claugher Award by the Society of Electron Microscope Technology (SEMT).
The award is given in memory of Don Claugher, who was Head of the Electron Microscope Unit at the Natural History Museum and an active member of the SEMT committee. Much of his work was experimental with an interest in new applications, methodologies and approaches, therefore the Don Claugher Award is given to UK early career scientists, artists, universities or schools for microscopy projects each year.
Katie’s project at the Franklin focuses on liquid phase electron microscopy, which aims to further develop graphene encapsulated liquid cells to enable the imaging of biology in its native liquid as opposed to imaging frozen samples. Katie’s project involves observing mitochondrial dynamics, behaviours and functions in real-time with this technique. The award will be used to study applications of liquid phase electron microscopy for mitochondrial research and Katie plans to present her findings at an upcoming SEMT One Day Meeting.
“The Don Claugher Award is a wonderful endorsement from the SEMT, supporting our efforts to explore the applications of liquid phase electron microscopy for mitochondrial research. With continued development and refinement of our techniques, I hope that the unique capabilities of liquid phase electron microscopy will become a useful tool for investigating a broad range of mitochondrial research questions.”
