​Winners of the SPMS Science Writing Competition 2019

The human breath is an ideal way to detect disease, including top killers such as cancers, diabetes and kidney diseases.

But breath analysis is extremely challenging, said Phan Gia Chuong, a final year PhD student from the Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry (CBC) in the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS). His essay about designing chemical devices to perform breath analysis was awarded first prize in the inaugural SPMS Science Writing Competition 2019.

"I had to write a lot of scientific papers and proposals for my career. The challenge for this competition was to keep it simple and understanding for a general audience," said Phan.

Abhishek Kumar, a third year PhD student from the Division of Physics and Applied Physics, won the second prize for his essay on the wireless communications technologies of the future.

Tatsiana Kusmich, a second year undergraduate from CBC, clinched the third prize for her essay on the chemistry of DNA.

The inaugural SPMS Writing Competition 2019 was organised to encourage and reward high-quality writing amongst young scientists. Each submission was judged by its writing style, as well as its ability to communicate a science story clearly to non-specialist audiences. "I was impressed by the stories. We hope to develop these raw talents further," said Professor Tan Choon Hong, Chair of SPMS, during the prize presentation ceremony on 26 April 2019.