CAPS PhD student Duncan V. Mifsud and his supervisor Prof. Nigel J. Mason organised the Collisions Physics and Chemistry and their Applications (COPCA), which was recently held in Valletta, Malta between October 30th and November 4th 2022. The conference was a multi-disciplinary one which involved sessions on various themes broadly related to collisions such as: planetary science impacts, electron-induced physics and chemistry, astrochemistry, nuclear science and energy generation, battery technology, among others. Around 60 delegates attended the conference from 31 institutions in 15 different countries.
The University of Kent was well represented at the COPCA conference: CAPS academics Jon Tandy, Matthias van Ginneken, Felipe Fantuzzi, Heidy Quitián-Lara, and Nigel J. Mason, along with PhD students Allie H. Corrigan, Matthew Dickers, Perry A. Hailey, and Duncan V. Mifsud were in attendance. Also in attendance were Maria Alfredsson and Rebekah Attard-Trevisan from the University of Kent Materials for Energy and Electronics Group.
A poster session was held during the conference, during which PhD students and early career researchers were given the opportunity to present their research work in a competition judged by local representatives from the academic and government sectors, including: Prof. Simon Fabri (Pro-Rector of the University of Malta for Research and Knowledge Transfer), Prof. Emmanuel Sinagra (Dean of the Faculty of Science of the University of Malta), and Ms. Ruth DeBrincat (Senior Director for Research, Strategy and Technical Affairs at the Malta Council for Science and Technology). Kent PhD students Matthew Dickers and Rebekah Attard-Trevisan won two of the three poster prizes awarded.
Conference delegates at the dinner on Thursday 3rd November.
Poster prize winner Rebekah Attard-Trevisan (centre) with her supervisor Maria Alfredsson and conference co-organiser Nigel J. Mason.
Poster prize winner Matthew Dickers (centre) with his supervisor and conference co-organiser Nigel J. Mason (right) and his placement supervisor Andrey V. Solov’yov (left).