2026 Awards Winners

The Scottish Association for Metals is the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining's 2026 Local
Society of the Year.  This award recognises the efforts SAM has made in recent years to widen and deepen its engagement with the materials community in Scotland and beyond, and in enhancing its interaction with young engineers.

We are also delighted to hear that SAM President Prof Brad Wynne, Director of the Advanced Forming Research Centre at the University of Strathclyde, has been awarded the Stokowiec Medal in recognition of distinguished work related to the technical, manufacturing, processing or engineering application of alloy steels, including stainless steels.

In addition, two engineering graduates from the University of Glasgow have also been awarded prizes:

• Finton Price has been awarded the Scottish Association for Metals prize for the best materials related project submitted in the study of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Glasgow 2025/2026.

• Pablo Moran Ruiz has been awarded the Scottish Association for Metals prize for best materials related Final Year Project submitted in the study of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Glasgow 2025/2026.  

Congratulations to all our prize winners.

  Pablo Moran Ruiz   Finton Price

Scottish success in Young Persons Lecture Competition

Congratulations to Angus Coyne-Grell who was awarded third place in the finals of the UK Young Persons Lecture Competition organised by the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining.

The finals took place on Thursday 21 May at the prestigious Armourers' Hall in London when representatives from each of the Institute's six UK "regions" competed to take away the trophy and go on to represent the UK at the world finals later this year.

The competition invites students and early‑career professionals (aged 18–28) to deliver a 15‑minute lecture on a materials, minerals, mining, packaging or wider engineering topic.  Angus' talk was entitled "Shifting Boundaries: Controlling grain structure in nickel-based superalloys without deformation" and described the formation of interphase precipitation in nickel alloys.

Angus was selected to represent Scotland at the UK finals following a Scottish competition held at the University of St Andrews on 25th February.  He currently works in the Advanced Forming Research Centre, a specialist centre within the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS)