Paulina Quintanilla awarded SCI Scholarship

Paulina Quintanilla, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, has been awarded an SCI scholarship of £5,000 to support her studies.

Paulina Quintanilla is a PhD student in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering. The SCI scholarship of £5,000 will support her studies over the next two years, in “Dynamic physics-based flotation models for effective predictive control”.

In addition to the prestigious scholarship, Paulina will benefit from publishing opportunities, access to a high-calibre network to help launch her career, and opportunities to present her work and raise her profile within the scientific community.

SCI Scholarships are well respected by the industry. The SCI Scholars Fund was established in 1920 by the requests of Rudolph Messel and John Gray, both former presidents and founding members of SCI. 

Paulina Quintanilla joined the Advanced Minerals Processing Research Group at Imperial College London in 2018. Her PhD research is under the supervision of Dr Pablo Brito-Parada and Professor Stephen Neethling and funded by the Chilean National Agency of Research and Development.

"I am now in the second year of my PhD and I am enjoying it so far. I have gained loads of practical experience and theoretical knowledge. I have had also the opportunity to attend the 18th IFAC MMM conference, South Africa, in 2019 to present the preliminary results of my research, as well as to learn more about this topic and expand my network," says Paulina.

This funding will provide a valuable resource to help Paulina to extend her research by supporting her participation at conferences and courses relevant to her research topic. "I am enormously honoured to be awarded an SCI Scholarship and for being part of the College of Scholars. Besides, I will use this funding to cover part of the costs of an experimental collaboration that I will carry out next year in Chile to further support my PhD research.”

The Department of Earth Science and Engineering is delighted that Paulina Quintanilla has been offered this Scholarship and that her work on flotation modelling for control and optimisation will benefit from the additional contacts and support she will gain from this valuable opportunity.