International Prizes for Plasma Students!
PhD students in the Plasma and Pulsed Power Group (P3G) have been recognised for their work at two international conferences this summer.
Danny Bayliss (left) entered the Developing Scientist Award Programme at the 100th International Association for Food Protection Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the 31st July - 3rd August 2011.
His technical presentation was entitled, Cold Atmospheric Gas Plasmas: Towards Elucidating Bacterial Inactivation Mechanisms and was part of his PhD research.
Danny is investigating the use of room-temperature open-air plasmas to destroy infectious biofilms - a slime film that grows in people’s mouths, open wounds, surgical instruments and inserts, and food processing equipments. See the main picture above for a prototype trial of the process.
90% of infections are associated with bacteria formed in protective biofilms, for which antibiotics do not work effectively. Danny’s research is showing the dynamics of how bacteria hidden in the biofilm slime are being destroyed together with the matter of the biofilm themselves, and his work highlights the challenge of biofilm destruction as well as possible plasma-based biofilm inactivation strategies.
The Developing Scientist Award is given for the best three presentations at the event and there is a pre-selection of just 10 students (who must be currently undertaking MSc or PhD programmes) to be judged. Danny did very well to make the top 10 and gave an excellent presentation, earning him third place, a framed certificate and $200. 
Earlier this summer and further south along the shores of Lake Michigan, Kirsty McKay (right) presented her research at the 38th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS).
Kirsty is creating detailed computational models to elucidate what reactive oxygen species, charged particles and other biocidal agents are created in plasmas, how these can be effectively delivered to a bacteria-containing surface and how the composition and energy of the biocidal plasma agents may be optimised to effect the greatest damage to pathogens on that surface. By identifying the main plasma agents in helium/water discharges and unravelling their complex dynamics, Kirsty’s work has brought us closer to understanding how best to tweak the chemistry of a flowing gas plasma for applications in biomedicine.
Her paper entitled Dynamics of Atmospheric Pressure He/H2O Microplasmas: a New Double Layer Structure was given an honourable mention as part of the "Best Student Presentation Awards" . The awards were established in 2005 by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society to encourage both outstanding student contributions and greater student participation as principal or sole authors of papers.
Danny’s and Kirsty’s research is supervised by Prof Michael Kong, Dr Felipe Iza and Dr Gilbert Shama.