A KILWINNING student is celebrating after being accepted to start a PHD at Oxford University.

Brainy Emma Hedley is moving to Oxford after the summer to work on her PHD in Atomic Scale Characterisation of Lithium Ion Battery Materials.

The 23-year-old from James Clements Close, is the first person in her family to have ever gone to Oxford and says she is really excited about starting the course.

She said: “It’s really exciting. I am just looking for somewhere to live just now but it’s quite expensive so it’s been challenging.

“No one in my family has ever gone to Oxford University before so my dad is telling everyone. He thinks it’s great.

“He is very proud.”

The former Kilwinning Academy pupil applied to Oxford University after completing a Masters Degree at Glasgow University, where she received a First in Chemical Physics.

Emma says her dream is to work designing batteries for electric cars.

She said: “I hope to get some kind of research job at the end of it. I would like to work on developing electric car batteries.

“It’s just something I have always been interested in.

“I will be going to Germany for six months to do research as part of the PHD course so that will be a great experience.”

Emma will move to Oxford after the Summer.