Philip Gabriel a PhD student in the Rubber Group has won the top research student lecture competition at the October ACS (American Chemical Society) Rubber Division meeting in Kentucky. This year there were over 20 students presenting at the conference and so the level of competition was very high. Philip's talk on the "Influence of interface geometry on rubber friction" was very well received by the judging panel. James Busfield, Philip's supervisor, comments that Phil is an exceptional PhD student, who well deserved his $1,500 prize.