The Armourers & Brasiers’ Gauntlet Trust has a long-standing tradition of supporting education and research in metallurgy and materials science. Its Materials Science Award – Research Student Travel Grant is significant because it enables early-career researchers, selected through a competitive process, to take part in the international exchange of ideas that drives the field forward.
Zola Hinds, a final-year PhD student within the Nuclear Futures Institute (NFI), was selected as a 2025 recipient of the award, following encouragement to apply by her academic supervisor, Professor Michael Rushton. Her doctoral research is funded by the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and OperaHPC through the UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme. The Trust’s award helped to make it possible to attend the 2025 NuFuel conference held September 16-18 in Delft, Netherlands. The conference is a leading forum for nuclear fuel and nuclear materials research, bringing together academics and industry from across the world to share progress in fuel performance, characterisation, modelling and safety.
With the Trust’s support, the conference provided an opportunity for Zola to present her research “Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics for Fuel Fragmentation Relocation” and to receive constructive questions and feedback. Discussions with delegates supported the refinement of the technical approach and generated ideas. The conference also offered professional development beyond the technical programme. On the final day, Zola participated in a tour of the Delft University research reactor and associated research facilities. The visit provided exposure to experimental capabilities, including demonstrations of specialist equipment and research infrastructure. A science communication workshop was also offered as part of the final-day programme, complementing the technical sessions with broader skills development.
Overall, attendance strengthened her professional networks and supported Zola’s career development by enabling direct engagement with researchers and organisations working at the interface of fundamental materials science and applied nuclear technology. The feedback received at NuFuel conference and exposure to current experimental capabilities helped her to identify practical avenues for future work and collaboration. Acknowledgements are extended to the Armourers & Brasiers’ Gauntlet Trust for enabling participation and to the NuFuel conference organisers for their assistance while delivering a high-quality conference.
