Blog posts

From Labs to Lunch: How the I&I PhD Networking Event Brings Us Together

By Sophie Ball and Katrina Fordwor, Department of Immunology and Inflammation

PhD students can easily get caught up in their projects, labs and work and not have the opportunity to network with other students, whether these students are from the same floor or other labs. The department for Inflammatory and Infection is spread over multiple floors, so it is easy for students to become siloed and not to interact with one another across the whole of their PhD. This is why we set up a monthly initiative to bring PhD students together in a relaxed setting. The Graduate School has granted us the opportunity to fund a monthly lunch.

LMS PhD Social Evening – Sixes Social Cricket

On 14 November, the LMS PhD student committee organised a cricket night at Sixes in White City for the Institute’s PhD students. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to step away from their academic routines and connect in a fun, relaxed environment. The event was all about fostering connections between students from different groups and creating a sense of community beyond our workspaces.

The evening brought together 17 enthusiastic participants who were divided into two teams for a lively cricket match. The friendly competition was full of energy, with some surprising displays of skill and plenty of moments to laugh about.

Life Sciences – Living Planet Data Challenge

By Agnes Szwarczynska, PhD Researcher at Schroeder Lab at Silwood Park

Recently, I came across a Nature article titled “Reproducibility trial: 246 biologists get different results from the same data sets.” It got me thinking — what if Imperial students, with expertise spanning from animal communication to microbial science, took on the same challenge? That’s how The Living Planet Data Challenge was born — an exciting three-day event that, for the first time, brought together master’s and PhD students at Silwood Park to tackle a real-world data problem.

In the first week of February, participants applied their skills in data analysis, coding, and research to address a question at the intersection of ecology, evolution and environmental conservation.

Strengthening Our Research Community: Insights from the Nutrition Section Networking & Development Day

Blog by Kaoutar Abaakil, Research Postgraduate, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction

The Nutrition Section Away day took place on December 2nd, 2024, bringing together members from various research groups across the Nutrition section with the generous sponsorship of the Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI). The event aimed to foster networking, knowledge exchange, and collaboration. It was a fantastic event, with a strong turnout of students and researchers eager to connect and share ideas.

The day began with an informal networking lunch, providing a relaxed environment for students, post-doc researchers and principal investigators to engage with one another. This casual setting set the tone for the day, allowing participants to build connections before the formal program began.

Empower 2024 – Imperial’s Black Doctoral Network hosts its inaugural inter-university event

Written by Peter Bryan and Naima Adan, PhD Students from the Department of Bioengineering

Last month, Imperial College London’s Black Doctoral Network (BDN) held its inaugural inter-university event bringing together attendees from Imperial, London School of Economic (LSE), King’s College London (KCL), University College London (UCL), Cambridge, Bath, Swansea and more to share experiences, insights and anecdotes of postgraduate studies and careers. With over 40 attendees, the event was a resounding success.

Panel discussion

The event kicked off with a panel discussion hosted by Dr Wayne Mitchell, Associate Provost (Equality, Diversity and Inclusions). Joining Wayne was Kathryn Plummer, Patent Attorney at Carpmaels and Ransford, Dr Andrea Attipoe, co-founder of BDN and Microsystems Engineer at Beyond Blood Diagnostics, and Dr Emily Muller, Machine Learning Engineer at the Wellcome Trust and co-chair of Indaba.

PhD Student Welfare Evening – Bowling at All Star Lanes

by Lucy Edwardes, Scarlett Brown and Helen Figueira, PhD students from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences at the Institute of Clinical Sciences

On the 23rd November the LMS PhD student committee organised a bowling social at All Star Lanes in White City. The aim of the event was to provide an opportunity for students to meet fellow students across different groups within the LMS away from the lab and in a relaxed and fun environment. With the hope to encourage better scientific collaboration between research groups and build support networks for students outside of their lab groups.

25 students came along and were mixed into 4 teams and played 2 games.

Bringing Together Imperial’s Social Scientists: A Flagship PhD and ECR Event

By Lauren Shields, PhD Student in the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship.

On Monday 10th June 2024, over 20 PhD and Early Career Researchers from across all four Imperial faculties met in a first-of-its-kind networking event. As a PhD social scientist in a STEMMB institution, it can be hard to find other researchers conducting similar research to you. We are often either isolated in departments or are lacking targeted training or collaboration sessions with others in the same institution. I wanted to host an event that would bring these researchers together, to form connections and learn from each other, as well as celebrate the hugely important offerings that social science can bring to physical science.

Navigating PhD life as a Parent: Recommendations and resources at Imperial College

Blog by Laila Kasuri, PhD Student, Centre for Environmental Policy

As a mum doing a PhD, I get my fair share of sympathetic yet awkward remarks. After all, very few of my colleagues inhabit the world that I am in. Instead of telling them unrelatable stories of how my kid who is teething kept me up all night,  I tell them about Michelle Yeow’s character, Evelyn, in Everything, Everywhere all at once. Like Evelyn, I often find myself in two different universes, each encapsulating two different identities of myself. In one, I could be learning new approaches and methods, producing posters and learning to present my research in an ‘engaging’ way, while in another universe, I am sleep-training my 1-year-old, attending reading mornings at my 4 year-old’s school and visiting the GP once a week for vaccinations, postpartum visits, measles, colds, vaccinations, and a never-ending slew of other sicknesses. 

School of Public Health Harmony Night: A Melodic Celebration of Culture and Community

By Sunyuntao Xu, MSc Epidemiology, Academic Representative, School of Public Health

On June 4th, 2024, we hosted the inaugural School of Public Health Harmony Night Karaoke party at Kungfu Restaurant. This vibrant social event, organized by the School of Public Health, brought together postgraduate students for an evening of singing, dining, and networking. This student-led initiative aimed to strengthen community bonds and promote well-being, encouraging cultural exchanges and interpersonal connections beyond the academic setting.

Karaoke is an entertainment culture that originated in East Asia, gaining immense popularity in China, Japan, and Korea. Over time, this engaging pastime has spread to Europe and America, thanks to cultural mixing and globalization.

An Afternoon at the Transport Museum: Connecting Minds in Transport Research

by Leah Camarcat and Surabhi Ojha, Research Postgraduates in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

To foster collaboration and networking within the PhD cohort in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College, we recently organized an event at the Transport Museum for PhD students. This gathering, held on May 25, 2024, brought together bright minds from the transport research group and various other research groups in the department, providing a platform for knowledge exchange and networking.

The Transport Museum’s exhibits provided an excellent icebreaker, sparking conversations about the history and future of transport. The feedback from attendees was positive, with many expressing a desire for similar events in the future.