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Materials Literature Review Prize & Masterclass 2012 
 

The aim of the 2012 Literature Review Prize of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining is to encourage definitive, critical reviews of the literature by students as an essential part of study for a higher degree, and subsequently make the best of these available to a wider readership. It is judged by a panel appointed by the Editorial Board of the Institute’s journal Materials Science and Technology (MST), chaired by the Editor, Professor John Knott.

The Prize is open to any postgraduate studying for a materials science and engineering related qualification at a UK institution. The deadline for entries is now Monday 31st October 2011. Candidates must submit:

(i)   a 500 word extended abstract for a literature review associated with a materials science related
       higher degree project
(ii)  an outline structure for the review consisting of a list of section and subsection headings
(iii) a CV
(iv) a statement of support by the candidate’s supervisor
(v)  a declaration that the review is the candidate’s own unaided work

Entries that do not fulfil these requirements will not be considered.

Note:

 - The review must be on a topic appropriate for publication in MST (see the scope statement at
   www.maney.co.uk/journals/mst)

 - Careful thought should be given to the scope, in particular the breadth of a topic that can be
   covered satisfactorily in 7000 words. Proposals for reviews of novel or developing areas of a
   topic are likely to be favoured over those of areas adequately covered by existing reviews or
   monographs. The abstract should seek to justify the relevance of the chosen topic

- Requirements for a thesis introduction and an MST literature review are different. Basic theory
   and established knowledge must be dealt with concisely, with reference to existing reviews and
   textbooks. The review must be self-contained and critical (i.e. it should interpret the literature
   covered), must not contain reference to previously unpublished work and should seek to identify
   areas where further work is required to advance the field.

Up to six finalists, chosen on the basis of these abstracts, will be invited to produce full reviews by Monday 16th January 2012. These reviews should be close to final form and take account of the guidelines issued with the letter of invitation. Finalists may be invited to attend a masterclass at which they will make a short presentation to the panel of judges, followed by questions, and will receive feedback on their drafts, prior to final submission.

Final versions of the reviews, prepared after taking any feedback received into account, will be due by Friday 11th May 2012. The aim will be to announce the winner by the end of June 2012.

The winning review will, at the discretion of the judges and subject to referees’ comments, be published in MST or another Institute journal. The 2012 prize carries an honorarium of £350. Other commended entries that may be recommended for eventual publication will be awarded an honorarium of £100. The judges reserve the right to divide the prize fund as they deem appropriate among the winning and any commended entries.

Submissions or enquiries concerning the prize should be addressed to: Dave Bishop, Maney Publishing, direct line 0207 451 7308, email d.bishop@maney.co.uk.


Materials Literature Review Prize 2011 Winner

The 2011 Prize, sponsored by the UK Centre for Materials Education was won by Martin Evans of the National Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton University (nCATS) for his review ‘White structure flaking in wind turbine gearbox bearings – effects of butterflies and white etching cracks’. Martin commenced his PhD at nCATS in October 2009 under supervisors Professor Robert Wood and Dr Ling Wang, looking into premature bearing failures in wind turbine gearboxes. His primary activities are conducting rolling contact tribological tests on bearing steels to investigate the drivers of premature failure modes, coupled with advanced post-analysis techniques. Martin has previously won the IMechE Project Award as an undergraduate at the University of Southampton, and the 2010 IMechE Mission of Tribology Prize with a presentation on his PhD topic. Martin’s review will be published in a forthcoming special issue of Materials Science and Technology on the subject of bearing steels.

Two further entries in the 2011 competition were awarded commended status and will be published in Materials Science and Technology: ‘Review of techniques for manufacturing and modelling metal foam core sandwich panels’ by Charles Betts (Imperial College London) and ‘Reliability of Pb-free solders for harsh environment electronic assemblies’ by Sophie Godard Desmarest (University of Oxford).

The 2010 prize was also sponsored by UKCME, and the winning article: ‘Metal oxide applications in organic-based photovoltaics’ by Talia Gershon of the University of Cambridge is to be published in the September 2010 issue of MST, and will be available soon on the Maney and UKCME websites.
A full of list of the previous winning articles, together with some highly commended articles from previous years, is available to view free.

Materials Science and Technology

An international journal published by Maney for the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Editor Professor J F Knott, OBE, FRS, FREng

Associate Editors  Professor A. Horsewell, Professor R. D. K. Misra, Professor V. Randle,
Professor P. J. Withers, FREng

www.maney.co.uk/journals/mst