Journal of Microscopy announces Early Career Researcher ‘Best Paper’ prize winners
Each prize was £200 and was judged by General Editor Professor Michelle Peckham, Deputy Editor Professor Pete Nellist and our team of Scientific Editors.
For life sciences, Dr Ellen Verwee has been awarded ‘Best Paper’ for the original article Visualisation of microalgal lipid bodies through electron microscopy. Ellen obtained her master studies industrial engineer biochemistry at Ghent University, Belgium, in 2013. After graduation she has been working for six years in the application laboratory of the international gelatine producer Rousselot, before staring her PhD in Bioscience Engineering at Ghent University. Her PhD research focused on the use of advanced microscopy techniques to reveal the microstructure of macroconstituents in food side streams and alternative biomass, a project of interest to make the food chain more sustainable by reusing these streams.
For physical sciences, Araf Al Rafi has been awarded ‘Best Paper’ for the paper Analysis of microscopy techniques to measure segregation in continuous-cast steel slabs. Araf is a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at McMaster University, where he began his research in 2021 under the supervision of Prof. André Phillion in the SIM3P group. He is also a researcher at the McMaster Steel Research Centre (SRC), contributing to advancements in steel processing and manufacturing. His work focuses on centerline segregation in continuous-cast steel, a critical defect that impacts mechanical properties and product quality. He is developing numerical models and experimental quantification techniques to better understand and mitigate segregation in steel casting.
Life Sciences Winner
Scientific Editors Dr Kurt Anderson and Dr Ulla Neumann said: “The study by Ellen Verwee and colleagues reports on the visualization of lipid bodies in two species of microalgae by different electron microscopy-based approaches, namely TEM following high-pressure freezing and freeze-substitution as well as cryo-SEM based on either cryo-planing or freeze-fracturing. The paper is very well written, is illustrated by electron micrographs of outstanding quality and has a clear take-home message. According to the authors, transmission electron microscopy of cryo-immobilized microalgae is the method of choice providing detailed information not only for the analysis of lipid bodies but also of other organelles like the nucleus, mitochondria, chloroplasts, Golgi bodies and even small vesicles in both the mid-exponential and early stationary growth phase. Congratulations to Ellen and her colleagues for winning the ERC Best Paper prize in the Life Sciences.”
Dr Verwee said: “I am honoured to be awarded this prize, which is the culmination of 4.5 years of PhD research in the field of microscopy! In the winning paper, lipid bodies in microalgae were studied using both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM). Prior to visualisation, the samples were immobilised using very low temperatures (cryo-immobilisation; a technique that has not been widely used for lipid body research) to allow a correct comparison between the two imaging techniques. It was concluded that while TEM provides the highest resolution images, cryo-SEM is suitable for revealing specific structures of organelles, and this can also be extended to reveal the microstructure of food matrices. I hope that the results of the study can be used by researchers of different fields to select an appropriate electron microscopy method for their samples.”
Physical Sciences Winner
Professor Nellist said: “Measurement of elemental segregation in continuous-cast steel slabs is a challenging characterisation problem. Both high spatial resolution and large field of view are important to have a quantitative, accurate, and efficient measurement tool to investigate segregation phenomena. This study investigates the potential of a novel microscopy technique, Synchrotron Micro X-ray Flurorescence (SMXRF), to generate large-scale high-resolution segregation maps. A useful comparison with Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA) is presented. A particular challenge is to calibrate the SMXRF data to enable quantitative composition measurements. The paper presents and compares two different methods for doing this. The quantitative results are related back to explanations of the form of the segregation in the steel demonstrating that the work can reveal useful information about steel formation.”
Araf said: “In my work, I investigated advanced microscopy techniques for characterizing segregation defects in steel with high precision. The study compares Synchrotron Micro X-ray Fluorescence (SMXRF), Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), and Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA), evaluating their accuracy, resolution, and efficiency in mapping segregation patterns. The findings demonstrate that SMXRF provides the best combination of high spatial resolution and large field of view, making it an effective tool for large-scale segregation analysis. I also developed new calibration methods to enhance the quantitative accuracy of SMXRF data, ensuring reliable composition mapping. These advancements contribute to improving quality control in steel manufacturing and refining computational models of segregation phenomena.”