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.
