The IMA Awards of Excellence program, established in 1962, is an annual program open to all researchers and companies demonstrating outstanding examples of magnesium's use. Nominations are judged by a peer review panel of international experts and winners are recognised worldwide.
Chris won the award of excellence for his research in the development of Biodegradable Magnesium Alloy for Orthopaedic Applications.
Often a patient will need two parts of their bones screwed together, which then results in a second operation to have the screws removed. For the past 8 years, Chris has been a part of a research team that overcame these limitations and created a roadmap to the next generation of metallic biodegradable implant materials with completely biocompatible elements. A state of the art method to synchronise the corrosion potential was developed to control the corrosion rate.
Working closely with major hospitals in Korea, the research team have performed several hundred cases of small bone fixation screws and the results have been promising. The BBC World News ‘Horizons’ programme recently featured the team’s research as a medical breakthrough.
Chris commented:
"I am deeply honoured to have received the award of excellence from IMA. I would like to thank my family, my supervisors (Dr James Edwards and Professor Sion Glyn-Jones), my mentors at Korea Institute of Science and Technology (Dr. Hyun-Kwang Seok and Dr. Yu-Chan Kim) and the U&I Corporation for their support over the years. I am hoping to collaborate with more professionals at Oxford to explore the new possibilities of these biodegradable metallic materials."
