This award is international recognition for my research and also a huge encouragement for me and our EPEC Superconductivity Group.

PhD student Jun Ma

The prestigious award for PhD students in the field of applied superconductivity recognises the quality of their prior work, the impact of their current research and the impact of their potential research in superconductivity. It is the highest prize for PhD students in the superconductivity community in the world.

Jun is a member of the Electrical Power and Energy Conversion (EPEC) Superconductivity Group, part of the Department’s Electrical Engineering Division. He carried out his PhD research on high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets and contactless charging technology for HTS magnets, under the supervision of Dr Tim Coombs, Head of the EPEC Superconductivity Group. 

Superconducting magnets are the key components in many scientific and medical devices and have uses in, for example, particle accelerators and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The contactless charging technology for HTS magnets is able to make superconducting magnet systems more compact, as well as lighter, cheaper, and even portable. Jun’s research has the potential to extend the benefits of superconductivity to a wide range of users.

Jun said: “This award is international recognition for my research and also a huge encouragement for me and our EPEC Superconductivity Group. I would like to thank the support of my supervisor, group members, and all the staff in the Department of Engineering who supported me during my PhD research. The Department of Engineering is a wonderful place where great brains come and work together to produce great research. I will continue to make meaningful contributions to the field of applied superconductivity.”

Six Fellowships are awarded worldwide each year and each one comes with a certificate and an honorarium of $5,000. Jun Ma is the only prize winner in the UK this year. 

The award was announced by the President of IEEE Council on Superconductivity at the Applied Superconductivity Conference (ASC 2020).