Unfortunately, we are unable to celebrate graduation until Easter 2021 due to COVID-19, but we have decided to celebrate anyway by showing the world how amazing our Graduates are!

The Department of Materials are extremely proud of the way our Class of 2020 completed their final year - they excelled in their final months as students in spite of the issues thrown at them by the current pandemic and they have grown over the course of their studies, not only to become ready for furthering their academic and industrial futures, but also as individual adults, to become the incredible people that they are.

Below are the finalist prize winners for this year, with quotes from each of them - we hope that you will celebrate with them and us!

Alex Raven - Armourers and Brasiers’ Industrial Placement Prize - awarded to the student who has performed best on their Industrial Placement year.  Students are judged on their performance through graded placement reports by academic industrial supervisors.  

"I'm very honoured to receive the Armourers and Brasiers' Industrial Placement award. Its great to finally have the results that I've been working hard towards for half a decade. Thank you to everyone in the department for all your work and support in the last 5 years."

Tasmin Boam - Nominations - IoM3 R H Craven Award for the best polymer graduate and IoM3 Royal Charter Prize Award for the best materials graduate   

John Goodwin Memorial Prize - awarded to the undergraduate student attaining the highest marks for a final year project

Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Prize - awarded to the student achieving best overall performance during the whole period of Department of Materials first degree programme

"I am very honoured to receive these awards after four years of hard work. My thanks goes out to all of the staff members within the department who have provided an interesting degree programme and given support throughout. I look forward to seeing my fellow coursemates and the materials department staff at graduation in 2021!"

In September Tasmin is starting a job as a Development Engineer at Composites Evolution where she will be helping develop innovative composite materials. 

Abbie Durrant - Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (Midlands Group) Susan Panteny Prize for the Best Polymer Project

“I am pleased and honoured to receive the Susan Panteny Graduation Prize. I found completing my dissertation project both interesting and rewarding, it is great to have my work acknowledged. I would like to thank all the Loughborough staff that have assisted me throughout my Biomaterials Engineering degree.”

“We are very proud of all of our finalists this year and particularly our prize winners.  We look forward to celebrating all of your achievements together at graduation in April next year”

Dr Rebecca Higginson - Head of Department

Flo Ertl - HIVE Composites Ltd Prize: Florence Ertl

‘Receiving this award and first class honours has been a lovely end to my four years at Loughborough. I have met so many amazing people that have made my experience here really special and given me so many opportunities that I am very grateful for.‘

Flo will be starting work for Deloitte in January as an Analyst within the Tax and Legal Service Line.

"Well done to all of the prize winners and huge congratulations to all of the students who have graduated this year!" 

Dr Fiona Hatton - Lecturer

Ben Macklin - Armourers and Brasiers’ Innovative Materials Prize - awarded to the final year students with the most innovative individual materials project in the view of the Programme Board

"I am honoured to have been awarded the Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Prize for my project investigating variation within nacre-inspired composites. Being able to investigate such a novel project was both a pleasure and a welcome challenge, despite the difficulties this year has provided. I would like to thank Professor Gary Critchlow for his continued mentoring and guidance throughout the year, as well as Dr Robert Crookes for his original data for the project and for his tireless support to make this project a reality for me. Furthermore, I would like to thank all of those involved in the Materials Department and the Bioengineering course for making my three years at Loughborough some of the best of my life. I hope this achievement is a springboard to many other contributions I make to the world of science and engineering throughout my future career, initiated by Loughborough University and its fantastic staff"

Brittany Egden - Nomination - IoM3 A T Green Award for the best ceramics graduate   

Although we are obviously looking forward to the Graduation Ceremony in April 2021, (and hearing what you have been doing since leaving Loughborough University!), we would still like to say, here and now, "CONGRATULATIONS to you all!" from everyone in the Department of Materials and the School of AACME, regardless of whether you won a prize or not - you are all absolutely amazing and we look forward very much to celebrating your achievement with you in person next year!