The Rowland and Christine Hill Student Awards at SIMS-24

The 24th secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS-24) conference was held in La Rochelle, France from 8-13 September 2024. The biennial event is a forum for colleagues from academic, industrial, and national laboratories worldwide to exchange results and new ideas on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry and related techniques.

On Friday, the final day of the conference, there was an award ceremony in which Ionoptika presented the Rowland and Christine Hill Student Awards.

Rowland Hill was one of the original founders of Ionoptika Ltd in 1994, setting up a scientific company that could take forward our expertise in Ion Beam Systems. When he passed away in 2015, his wife Christine joined the company and carried on his work, until her passing last year. They were both integral to Ionoptika and keen to support young scientists and help them progress.

Ionoptika started the Rowland and Christine Hill Student Awards in their memory, to encourage students and recognise excellence in student SIMS research.

Paul Blenkinsopp, Managing Director and co-founder of Ionoptika, was proud to present the awards to this year’s winners, Zahraa Berro of the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, David Schäfer of Justus Liebig University Giessen, Sivakkumaran Sukumaran of Imperial College London and Anna Trzaska of the University of Nottingham.

Many congratulations to all of our award winners!