Germany was the most popular home country for PhD students attending the eighth annual UK Energy Research Centre Summer School at Warwick University last week, but Denmark scooped the prize for the best student poster presentation this year. After Germany, the most popular countries of origin for non-UK students attending the week-long event were Sweden, Portugal and the United States. A total of one hundred students attended this year, hailing from countries as far apart as Japan, Colombia, South Africa, Israel and Belarus.
The event is designed to give first and second year PhD students an understanding of energy systems as a whole and of pathways to low-carbon and resilient energy systems, and to help them to develop an appreciation of how to collaborate and interact across disciplines and sectors.
Students heard presentations from high profile speakers such as Dr Bruce Godfrey of the Australian Renewable Energy Centre, Tom Sheldon of the Science Media Centre, Tadj Oreszczyn, Director of the Energy Institute at UCL, Sally Bennett, Director of the Global Climate and Energy Project and Terry Surles of the Desert Research Institute.
The issues discussed ranged from unconventional hydrocarbons, and the challenge for renewables and nuclear power to working with the science media and how to work in large international teams. The students gave a poster presentation as part of an evening drinks reception.
Sixty five posters were submitted in total, and prizes were awarded for the three best, with Lena Kitzing of the University of Denmark pictured winning first prize of £100 for her poster entitled ‘Risk implications of renewable support instruments: comparative analysis of feed-in tariffs and premiums’.
Lena comments:  ‘The UKERC Summer School was well organised, had super interesting inputs and an amazing exercise, in which we got to work in truly international teams. I met loads of brilliant people with which I definitely will keep in contact and have some collaboration in the future.   ‘And thanks to Sparks a network for early career energy researchers, facilitated by UKERC for the poster session. I think it gave the Summer School a truly scientific feeling. And winning the competition will definitely stay with me as one of the best things that happened to me in my research so far!’  
Second prize of £50 went to Montserrat Serrano-Medrano of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, who presented on ‘Estimation of fuelwood use spatial distribution in Mexico to develop priority regions for interventions’, while third prize of £25 went to Olawafunmilola Ola of the University of Nottingham for a poster entitled ‘Solar fuel production using nicked-based TiO2 nanoparticles’.
The Summer School ran alongside UKERC’s Annual Assembly, which was the most successful ever this year, with 98 members attending for a three-day programme of presentations, working groups and social events, including a formal dinner and a Céilidh, for which the Summer School students were also in attendance.
Abstracts and PDFs of the Summer School posters will be available via the Meeting Place website from Friday 13 July - http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page=TheMeetingPlace Ends.