Inspiring the next generation of materials scientists

Our people are passionate about using our materials to make the world sustainable and improve the quality of life.

Sharing their passion with budding materials scientists is one of the ways our people are inspiring the next generation to use their curiosity to make a big positive difference.

Our Global Materials Centre of Excellence for Structural Ceramics, located at our Stourport UK site, recently hosted two students for a week of real life materials science experience, in partnership with Nuffield Research Placement. Morgan began working with Nuffield in the summer of 2021, offering a single day placement due to COVID restrictions, and have been proud to expand this programme to a week long experience for the past two years.

In 2024, led by our Senior Materials Scientist Zahra, the team were joined by Chole and Molly for a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience; through an immersive program that included factory visits and lab experiments.

Zahra shared; “I think that this placement programme is rewarding for the company, through engaging with young talents and investing in the future workforce. It also strengthens our community ties and supports our corporate social responsibility efforts too; a real win-win.”

During the week long placement, Chole and Molly spent their time on a dedicated project allowing them to take charge of all ceramic processing stages, from slip preparation to firing.

"I had a lovely time getting to understand and get hands on experience with the fundamentals of ceramic processing, alongside learning new things, which I did not expect such as working with SEM and getting to know the science behind it, which was my highlight! Thank you to everyone!"

Chloe, Centre of Excellence Placement Student

When they weren’t focused on the project, they prepared samples of their work for electron microscopy analysis and used advanced SEM technology at the CoE lab to image them, and spent time in the Materials Manufacturing Department, Tool Room, Injection Moulding Department, and Quality Control, allowing them to compare their lab-scale experiments with production-scale processes.

At the end of their experience, they delivered a presentation to the entire team, sharing their journey at Morgan and the insights they gained, which not only showcased their learning but also helped them develop and enhance their communication skills.

In addition to the placement, Molly was also awarded the ‘Outstanding Poster Award’ by the placement organisers, for her excellent work in sharing what she had learned on the programme.

"During my week placement here at Morgan, I have learned so much about the technical ceramic industry. All the staff here have made such a comfortable and warm environment, enabling myself to ask questions from how the process and machines work to their career paths and education choices. My time here has not only allowed me to witness what happens but also get a hands on experience".

Molly, Centre of Excellence Placement Student

The implementation of the placement programme has been supported by the wider Centre of Excellence wider team, Centre of Excellence Lead Jonthan commented; “Zahra has done a fantastic job to create an engaging week-long placement for the students who really benefitted from getting practical experience of a scientific career within our industry.

It was wonderful to hear their feedback during their presentation about how much they had learnt about materials science and the possible career paths open to them. These placements form part of the broader COE’s activities to ensure we have talented scientists available for our business in the future”.

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