1st Annual ICON Conference, Athens

On April 7th 2017, Becky was an invited speaker at the International Consortium of Nanotechnology's (ICON) 1st Annual Conference. This Consortium provides funding for a global network of PhD students working in a wide variety of nanotechnology fields such as graphene and perovskite solar cells. ICON is an initiative funded by the Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRF), who also supports Becky's fellowship. The LRF are a charity committed to improving the safety standards in engineering across the globe, and to promote scientific education, with ICON being one of their flagship schemes.    

The conference was a mix of fascinating talks about ICON, the LRF, and presentations from the PhD students themselves each of whom had three minutes to explain their work. Each speaker rose to the challenge and it was a great introduction to their work and to the later poster session. 

Becky's talk was about where a career in nanoscience could lead, by drawing on her experiences as both a PhD and PDRA. Following on from the experiences of an LRF-funded PhD student coming to the end of her work, Becky gave a brief introduction to her work and a few hints for the assembled PhD students on getting the most out of their PhDs.

The conference was held in central Athens, Greece, and provided the delegates with the opportunity to explore the wonderful historical sites in the city, including the fantastic conference dinner which was held at the Acropolis Museum, with views of Acropolis Hill and the Parthenon.