Southampton physics alumna wins Westminster Medal at STEM for Britain Awards

Former University of Southampton student Helen Parker scooped the overall prize and a gold medal for physics at the STEM for Britain parliament showcase for early career researchers.

Helen, an MPhys Physics alumna, was recognised for current PhD research in Scotland that is imaging lung disease for vulnerable patients in intensive care.

She was judged the best of 180 finalists in Westminster on Monday 12th March, taking home the Westminster Medal, the Cavendish Medal for Physics and a prize of £2,000. STEM for Britain celebrates excellent research and its communication from science, technology, engineering and mathematics through a national poster competition that concludes at parliament’s Portcullis House.

“I was surprised to win since, although my expertise is in physics, there is a large biological aspect to my research,” Helen says. “This win shows that interdisciplinary science is valuable not only to the academic community but also to the rest of society who rightly want to see the direct applicability of research. I really enjoyed hearing about the breadth of research happening in Britain at the moment and it was interesting to see the emphasis that Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, put on the importance of a close relationship between scientists and parliamentarians.”

Helen graduated from the University of Southampton in 2015 and has since moved to The Queen’s Medical Research Institute at The University of Edinburgh.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do my current PhD if it wasn’t for the skills and knowledge I gained at the University of Southampton,” she says. “The University offered many opportunities to study the physics of light, which I am now using in my PhD.”

Helen’s PhD is addressing an unmet clinical need for quick and accurate diagnoses of lung infection and inflammation for patients in intensive care. It builds upon scientific advances that use fluorescent molecules and fibre optics to see inside the deepest parts of a patient’s lung. These molecules fluorescently label bacteria or features of disease in lung tissue and are delivered through small channels down a fibre bundle developed at the University of Bath. Helen’s research is helping overcome challenges in detecting these molecules by developing a fibred microscope that uses ratiometric imaging.