Alex Gresty wins gold STEM for Britain prize

Alex scoops gold national award during British Science Week

Students from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences won coveted awards at the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee’s STEM for BRITAIN 2023, which took place in the Houses of Parliament on earlier this month, during British Science Week.

The event gives early career researchers the chance to present their work and discuss ground-breaking and frontier UK research and R&D to members of both Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

There were two awards for Alex Gresty, from the School of Physics and Astronomy. She won the Gold medal in the Physics category for her work on food packaging from nature: cellulosic films for the 21st century and also came 2nd in the Dyson sustainability award.

Alex Gresty, right, showing her award winning work to Hilary Benn MP, during the STEM For Britain Awards.

Reflecting on the awards Alex said, “I am beyond honoured to have been recognised for my work amongst the outstanding research that was presented at the STEM for Britain awards 2023.

“Working with and understanding the properties of sustainable packaging is a vital step to the phasing out of synthetic plastics in the drive towards a more sustainable society, something I have always been extremely passionate about.

“This opportunity has allowed Physicists like me to showcase my work to an engaged audience that we would have never usually have the platform to reach. Being part of such a prestigious competition and winning has given me such confidence as an early career researcher as being recognised for my hard work is very rewarding”

This is the second year running that a Soft Matter Physics PhD student has won a gold award, last year Adele Parry also received the top prize.