Two SEPnet students win a week’s Cosmonaut Space and Leadership Experience at the Yuri Gagarin Training Centre in Russia

To mark Tim Peake’s momentous visit to the International Space Station, SEPnet and the University of Kent’s School of Physical Sciences recently launched their own space initiative.

Physics students, Kieran Hashmi (Queen Mary University of London) and Greg Smith (University of Kent), have been selected to participate in a week’s cosmonaut training in Star City near Moscow.  The opportunity, sponsored jointly by SEPnet and University of Kent, will enable them to develop their team building and communication skills using the same equipment as the real astronauts.

Students from SEPnet partner universities were asked to submit 2-minute videos describing an investigation they would like to send into space. The winning videos were selected by a panel of 6 SEPnet partner judges. 2 runners up, Holly Stemp (University of Surrey) and Jonathan Bensusan Bash (University of Sussex) were awarded prizes of £500 each towards career development training.

The judges were impressed by the quality of all the applications and the students’ very creative use of visuals and good scientific knowledge. You can view some of the shortlisted videos here:

• Kieran Hashmi, Queen Mary University of London – How microgravity affects thermal conductivity of a ferrofluid
• Greg Smith, University of Kent – A solution to showering in space
• Holly Stemp, University of Surrey – Magnetic field investigations using worms
• Jonathan Bensusan Bash – composting food waste in space