Blog

Throughout my first two years of my PhD, I have learned that the hardest thing is not just working hard and doing your research in order to get your degree, but also exploring and trying totally new things that you have never thought that will be able to do. One of them (and the most scary for me) is giving ...

Mobility is an integral part of the life of Marie Skłodowska Curie scholars. Furthermore, as PhD students they sometimes enjoy additional travels. Although few would compare PhD-life with the one of rock stars, our ESRs 02 and 05, Marianna Pateli and Stelios Spathariotis, of Leicester University are happy to go “on tour” this year! Below you can read a nice ...

Entering a room full of people who already know each other is not the easiest social encounter; you don’t know anybody and nobody knows you. You can sense all eyes on you and, therefore, feel acutely self-conscious. It is even worse being a newcomer not just to a party, but a workplace. When I first accepted the position at the ...

During the NWE5 training focused on science communication and dissemination took place at Innovation Hub of University of Leicester. The training given by Prof Andy Abbott with title “How to take a photograph” was about things to remember and to avoid when taking a photograph – not a picture. The main lesson of this training was that the brain is ...

Being part of the SOCRATES network, I have noticed that the prerequisites for obtaining doctoral degree differ significantly between institutions. For instance, in the University of Leicester (UK) PhD candidate required to produce a solid piece of writing (around 150-200 pages long) and then go through an oral examination, “viva voce”, in front of board of professors. In contrast, to ...

Representing Kerneos Research and Technology Centre (Imerys Aluminates) and the SOCRATES project, I participated in April 2018 to the 4th ‘LC3 Doctoral School‘ hosted by the Laboratory of Construction Materials of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). LC3 stands for Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LCCC, so LC3). The 4-day event was well-attended by PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and professionals from over ...

Mining industry is facing the challenge of finding simpler, higher grade ores. They seem less and less available, so, in order to get the materials we consume, we need to develop new processes to extract materials from low grade ores. Not only primary ores should be investigated, but also mine tailings, which is the leftover solids from past ore processing. ...

Cementation is defined as the precipitation of a noble metal when it comes into contact with a less noble one. Since Roman times, this process has been applied in many metallurgical industries for contact plating, recovering valuable metals from waste solutions etc. However it has never been used before for painting! Stelios (ESR 5), in his research towards the selective ...

Copper is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity and because of these properties, it is the undisputed material of choice for conducting electricity. The quality of the copper should be very good for electrical applications. Bad quality dramatically changes the electrical conductivity and workability. The following qualities are important for copper; Chemical property: ...

Work Packages 1 and 2 of the SOCRATES project are working on the extraction and recovery of critical and economically important metals that are present in the investigated tailings, sludges, slags and ashes. This leaves behind residual mineral matrices that can be used in our Work Package 3: “Residual matrix valorization”, possibly requiring prior treatment processes. By activating these (treated) residues ...