Following the success of the inaugural ISGS PhD Student eMarathon in March 2024, the inaugural ISGS Early-Career Researcher eMarathon was held via ZOOM on 10 December 2024. During the four-hour duration of the event, the online audience was privileged to hear five of our ECRs from five different countries deliver high quality presentations on selected aspects of their work. The presentations covered a range of topics, including pulsed-laser annealing of thin-film heterostructures for gas sensing; aerogels; functional materials for environmental applications; mesoporous organosilica systems for drug delivery; and photonic devices. Each 30-minute presentation was followed by a 10-minute discussion period, which further highlighted that fact that the future of the international sol-gel community is in very safe hands.
Apart from offering our thanks to our future leaders who invested their time and effort in preparing such engaging presentations, the ISGS also thanks the many mentors who continue to guide our ECRs in developing and achieving their aspirations. If a key aspect of leadership is to develop leaders rather than followers, then we are certainly on the right track. We also thank the audience members for their interest in the event and for their active participation in the Q&A session following each presentation. Special thanks to those who stayed online for the entire event.
If you missed the live presentations, a recording will soon be uploaded to the ISGS website. The Program and Book of Abstracts for the eMarathon can be found here.
We look forward to your participation in our next eMarathon event, the 2025 Sol-Gel PhD student eMarathon scheduled for Thursday 13 March 2005 and to your ongoing support of our emerging scientists and technologists, the future leaders of the sol-gel community of practice.
