Blog posts

Faculty of Medicine’s Rising Scientist Day

Rising Scientist Day is an event hosted by the Faculty of Medicine, celebrating the innovative research and achievements of postgraduate students. It provides a valuable platform for students to present their work, exchange ideas, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration across the scientific community.

The following post summarises key highlights and reflections from the day.

Yuan Wang, PhD Student

I was honoured to present my poster on how the gut microbiome modulates metabolic diseases through its metabolites. My research focuses on integrating metagenomic and metabolomic data to better understand host–microbiome interactions. It was an exciting opportunity to share my findings with peers and faculty, and I’m grateful to have received a prize for my work.

Our experience of the Early Academic Talks (EAT)

By Clara Finnigan, Postgraduate Student, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction

Research is all about collaboration and communication. However, it can be daunting to meet new researchers, especially those outside of your immediate environment. We set up Early Academic Talks (EAT) to provide a space for Imperial Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to connect and present their research, helping break down barriers for collaboration and communication. Our fourth EAT session took place on Thursday, 24th of April.

This talk series is a cross-sectional initiative, aiming to oGer the opportunity for ECRs to meet and learn about the research at Imperial in a friendly and informal environment.

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.