Photo: Andy Brown, Upstream International Director, Executive Committee Member, Royal Dutch Shell plc, and two student winners,  Dr Jan Mertens and Hannah Stern — the inaugural winners of the Shell Churchill Research Prize.

Building on the longstanding relationship between Shell, who were a founder donor and contributed to the establishment of Churchill College we recently established the Shell Churchill Alumni Research Prize which was given to the best research proposal from a Postdoc, graduate or undergraduate student.

The prize is open to anyone who submits research in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. The panel selected from a diversity of proposals on the following themes: Energy (oiland gas, solar etc), Engineering and Big Data.

Shell Research Prize 2015

The competition was very good and so two Churchillians were selected for the prize, Hannah Stern (PhD student) for her proposal on ‘Achieving high efficiency solar cells via singlet fission’ and Dr Jan Mertens (Postdoc) for his proposal for ‘Graphene based plasmonic nano-optical capacitors.’

 “I would like to thank Shell staff as well as Shell-Churchillian alumni Malcolm Brinded and Ian McCredie. Thanks also to Churchill Fellows Dr Gehan Amaratunga, Prof Sir Mike Gregory, Dr Rita Monson and Dr John Fawcett.”

— John Pennant, Development Director