Mechanical Engineering graduate student, Hui Wang, received the Peter R Byron Graduate Student Award at the Respiratory Drug Delivery Europe conference in Lisbon, Portugal this past May 7-10. The award is funded by an endowment at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Foundation and recognizes excellence amongst graduate students presenting their research at the Respiratory Drug Delivery conference.
Hui Wang is a student in Dr. Reinhard Vehring's particle engineering group.
"The RDD conference is the most important conference in our field," says Vehring. "The organizers maintain high standards and review contributions carefully."
Wang recently defended his PhD thesis, which was the topic of his presentation at the conference.
"For my thesis research I developed a shadowgraphic stability testing technique to improve suspension formulations used in the field of respiratory drug delivery," he explains.
"Hui is exceptionally creative and has designed several intruments that are sought after by industry partners," says Vehring.
At the conference in Lisbon, Wang was also invited to present his research on the main podium for a plenary session.
"Presenting his work on the main podium was a great opportunity for Hui," says Vehring. "But it's also challenging to present in front of several hundred leaders in your field."
The challenge was not lost on Wang.
I was honoured but also nervous," he says.
Although Wang received the award, he sees it as recognition for the work of everyone in the lab.
"It was great recognition and exposure for the cutting-edge research we are doing in the particle engineering group in the department."
This is the second year in a row that a graduate student from Vehring's particle engineering group has won the Peter R Byron award at the RDD conference.
"Winning this award two years in a row shows the high quality and also the impact of the work my students do," says Vehring. "I am very grateful to work with such outstanding students."
For Wang the award is a nice marker at the end of his time as a graduate student and the beginning of his research career.
"This is an important step at the beginning of what I hope will be a long career in developing respiratory pharmaceuticals."
Fortunately, even after graduation, Wang will stay with the U of A as a research assistant in the particle engineering lab.