Moray scientist wins national award for his PhD
A scientist from Moray has won a national award for the best PhD in his area of study.
Former MiIne’s High pupil Matthew Smith has been rewarded for his work in the field of rheology. That, for the uninitiated, looks at the flow rates of certain materials that are neither liquid or solid, but somewhere between, such as oil.
Matthew, who’s aged 28, has received the Vernon Harrison award from the British Society of Rheology.
He said: “My first reaction when I heard I’d won was one of real surprise. I’m quite proud because I know how a lot of people applied for it.”
Before attending Milne’s, Matthew was at Mosstodloch Primary School. While still living in Moray he played youth football with Elgin City and rugby with Moray RFC.
He’s also not the only scientist in his family. Older brother Daniel is doing research at Aberdeen, while sister Carla is a chemical engineer with Macallan.
Whenever they all meet up nowadays, dad Frank and mum Jane, who live in Kingston, freely admit to not always being able to follow the conversation.
Matthew has recently left the University of Glasgow and has helped form a start-up company called Seluna Ltd, which is developing medical software to help doctors rapidly diagnose sleep disorders in children.