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    Prize Winners


Prize-winning Presentations at past MSSA Conferences

Each year there are a number of prizes given for outstanding papers and posters presented at MSSA.

To qualify for these prizes you will have to contact the conference organisers to request the list of prizes that will be available for that conference. Prize money and rewards change each year.

MSSA 2004

Anaspec prize (R1000) for the best poster or paper describing in basic terms how microscopy was used to resolve a specific problem for a client from industry:

Danél van Tonder, Martinus Cloete, Maria Atanasova (all from the Council for Geoscience, Pretoria ) and Malcolm Roberts (Council for Geoscience, Eastern Cape Unit) for a presentation entitled “Imaging and microanalysis solve customer complaints on defects in glass”.

 

FEI prize (R1000) for the best paper on aspect of electron microscopy that was published in a recognised international journal during the 12 months ending 30th June 2004:

Taryn Biggs (Physical Metallurgy Division, Mintek), Lesley Cornish (Physical Metallurgy Division, Mintek, and School of Process and Materials Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand), Mike Cortie (Physical Metallurgy Division, Mintek), and Mike Witcomb (Electron Microscope Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand) for a paper entitled “Revised phase diagram for the Pt-Ti system from 30 to 60 at.% platinum” which was published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 375, 120-127 (2004).

 

Mary Veenstra Poster Prize (R500) for the best poster presentation on any form of microscopy presented at the conference:

Alison Tuling of the Industrial Metals and Minerals Research Institute, University of Pretoria for a poster entitled “TEM study of chrome passivation of tin plate”.

 

Set Point Technologies award (R1000) for the best innovative technique in electron microscopy or for the novel use in South Africa of an established technique in any field presented as a paper:

Not awarded. The money was generously donated to the MSSA bursary fund.

 

Wirsam Prize ( Olympus camera) for the best light microscopy presentation either as a paper or a poster in any field:

Tasmin Cassim of the Shaw Research Centre, Sappi Forest Research, Howick for a presentation entitled “A fluorescent microscopical study of pollen tube growth in styles of three Eucalyptus species”.

 

Wirsam prize (R500) for the best paper presented by a student author in the Life Sciences:

Jason van Rooyen of the Electron Microscope Unit, University of Cape Town for a paper entitled “Three-dimensional structure of a type III glutamine synthetase by single particle reconstruction”.

 

MSSA prize (R500) for the best paper presented by a student author in the Physical Sciences:

Miemie Nzula of the Centre for Materials Engineering, University of Cape Town for a paper entitled “Order-hardening in platinum 10 at.% chromium”.

 

Wirsam TESCAN prize (R500) for the most exceptional presentation at the conference:

Lida Avenant from the Hoërskool Eldoraigne, Pretoria for a presentation entitled “The interpretation of the morphological characteristics of hair in identification processes”. Lida also won the MSSA prize at the National EXPO competition earlier in the year for a poster entitled “Microspy” related to morphological differences between hairs.  

 

The Fiona Graham prize was awarded to students who submitted a “first-time-accepted” abstract, that is, no changes required by the referees or editors. The winners were Chepkor Cheruiyot of the Plant Cell Biology Research Unit, University of KwaZulu-Natal , Alistair Douglas of the Department of Physics, University of Port Elizabeth and the Physical Metallurgy Division, Mintek, and Hannalie Lombard of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Port Elizabeth Technikon.

 

The winner of the micrograph competition to have their micrograph on the front cover of the Conference Proceedings was:

Abraham Chanwanji of the Department of Zoology, Rhodes University for a TEM micrograph of Kongota sperm tails.

 

The winners of the draw for Digicam cameras from Advanced Laboratory Services/JEOL for the micrograph identification contest were:

Wilma du Ploory of the Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria, and Priscilla Maartens of the Electron Microscope Unit, University of KwaZulu-Natal.

 

The winner of the Hamamatsu micrograph competition was:

Susanne Schmidt of the Department of Production Animal Studies of the University of Pretoria for a micrograph entitled “Chlorionic villi of a buffula placenta at early gestation stages”. The sample was prepared for SEM (Pd coated) and photographed through a stereo microscope. Susanne won a 5 megabyte digital camera.  

 

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Last modified: 04/25/10