Jassel Majevadia and Aeneas Wiener have been recognised in this year's Student Awards for Outstanding Achievement.

Jassel Majevadia and Aeneas Wiener, both students in Cohort 1 of the TSM-CDT, have been recognised in this year's Student Awards for Outstanding Achievement.

These annual awards were established in 2003 for excellence in extramural activity that brings credit to the College.

Jassel and Aeneas were the principal organisers of the student-led Hermes 2012 summer school that was held at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park during the London Olympics last July. Designed as “a scientific take on the oldest games in the world”, the school attracted students working on materials theory and simulation from across the globe. Far from the traditional format of a scientific workshop, the event combined master classes from international experts in materials modelling with science communication, challenging participants to convert the content of the master classes into public engagement videos. The vision for this event is clearly explained in the short video on the web site www.hermes2012.org.

The summer school was preceded by an international outreach campaign in partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry, the RSC-Hermes Ice Challenge, which challenged the public to explain the “Mpemba effect” – why hot water freezes faster than cold. This received over 22,000 submissions from around the world following intense media interest including BBC Radio 4’s World at One and Channel 4 News that featured interviews with Jassel and Aeneas. The winning videos and information about the RSC-Hermes Ice Challenge are available online at www.hermes2012.org/ice.

While Hermes 2012 is perhaps Jassel and Aeneas' most significant achievement during their time at Imperial, it is far from the only one.

Jassel has continued to develop her skills in science communication, participating in a variety of outreach activities, most recently being selected as the youngest participant at Soapbox Science, an event run by the Zoological Society of London, and L'Oréal Unesco for Women in Science. In January, Jassel attended the BBC Academy training day for Female Experts.

Aeneas played a critical role as the first student representative when the TSM-CDT was starting up in 2009-10, and continues to assist with maintenance of the CDT’s web site. He has also pursued other outreach activities, including membership of the organizing committee ‘Strut our science – fashion show & exhibition with a science twist'. He has also developed a series of online tools introducing TSM to schools: hermesacademy.org/water; participated in a Google mentoring programme; and is Chief Technical Officer for Cytora, a technology start-up focussing on conflict analytics technology.

The breadth of their achievements combined with the scale of Hermes 2012 is quite staggering, which makes these Awards for Outstanding Achievement thoroughly well-deserved. Many congratulations to them both!