The 2012 Manchester heat of the Schools’ Analyst Competition took place on Tuesday the 24th of April at the Division of Chemistry & Environmental Science at Manchester Metropolitan University. This year, it being the year of the Olympics, the theme of the competition was doping analysis.
Sixteen schools competed for first place and the opportunity to represent the NW region at the national final at the University of Bristol on the 25th-26th of June. Students were asked to identify suspect powder by FTIR-ATR, determine the content of ibuprofen in tablets by titration and quantify capsaicin in “horse urine” by HPLC.
The winners of this year’s competition were:
1. Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
2. Winstanley College
3. Withington Girls School
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys went on to represent the NW region at the national final. Winstanley College also received the prize for good laboratory practice and Loreto College received the prize for accuracy.
After lunch, the students and teachers enjoyed three talks. Dr David Johnson (Principal Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry at MMU) gave a talk on Drugs in Sport; Dr Oliver Sutcliffe (Lecturer in Pharmaceutical and Analytical Chemistry at MMU) gave a talk on Legal Highs – Analytical and Forensic Challenges and Katayune Presland (RSC ChemNet Ambassador and RSC NW Regional Coordinator) gave a talk on RSC ChemNet.
The competition was sponsored by the RSC Analytical Trust Fund and Melford Laboratories Ltd. We are looking for sponsorship for next year. If your company would like to sponsor next year’s competition, please get in touch at elsa.faria.billinton@gmail.com.
