Blog posts

Doctoral Student Welcome Event 2025

On Wednesday 15 October, the Early Career Researcher Institute hosted a Doctoral Student Welcome Event on the South Kensington Campus!

This 2-hour event included:
  • A welcome from the Early Career Researcher Institute, Provost Professor Peter Haynes, and Imperial Union President Nico Henry.
  • A presentation on the programme of support offered by the Early Career Researcher Institute
  • A Q&A panel discussion with current doctoral students
  • Tea, coffee, cakes and an opportunity to network with other doctoral students
  • Support Services stands

It was fantastic to see so many of Imperial’s new doctoral students at this event and at the Doctoral Student Welcome event held at the White City Campus.

ECRI Awards and Celebration 2025

The Early Career Researcher Institute is delighted to share the highlights from this year’s ECRI Awards and Celebration, held on Tuesday 16 September 2025 at Eastside!

This event, held during Postdoc Appreciation Week, celebrated the outstanding contributions of Imperial’s postdocs and fellows, recognising their vital role in fostering a positive and supportive research environment. The celebration included a lunch, the ECRI Awards ceremony and an opportunity to network with colleagues from across Imperial.

Award Winners

Creating a Positive Research Environment Award

  • Zhenzhu Li – Department of Materials
  • Lyes Kahouadji – Department of Chemical Engineering

Supporting Research Staff and Students Award

  • Fabio De Sousa Ribeiro – Department of Computing

Postdoc and Fellows Reps Team Award

  • Department of Life Sciences: Julia Sanchez Garrido, Alex Cocker, Satya Prakash, Anna Bajur, Hannah Jagoe, Smitha Maretvadakethope, Rahwa Osman, Valentina Carannante, Jessica Williams and Katie Willis

Postdoc and Fellows Champions Award

  • Stella Pedrazzini – Department of Materials

The ECRI team would like to extend their congratulations to all winners, finalists and nominees – all of whom have had a positive impact on those around them and the research culture at Imperial.

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.