Endings and beginnings

It has been a time of endings and beginnings. It’s that time of year when we say goodbye to summer and hello to shorter days, falling leaves and cooler temperatures. It’s also that time of year when we say goodbye to one cohort of MRes students and hello to the new year’s cohort.

And this year in Britain it has also been a time to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II and hello to King Charles III. It has all been a bit of a rollercoaster!

We’re celebrating good work completed, feeling sad that we won’t be seeing some people again, and feeling excited that we get to work with new people, all at the same time.

First the ending: final MRes assessments

Our MRes cohort of 2021-22 presented the results of their research projects at a symposium in early September. The students each gave a very short “flash” presentations, and discussed the details of their research in the poster session. It was great to see how the students had developed their research skills and independent ideas through projects in collaboration with industry.

A group of students and science professionals discuss a student's poster
Koon Yang Lee, MRes course co-director (and new professor! Congratulations to him too) helps assess a student’s poster
A female student stands in front of an audience with her slides displayed behind her; on the right is a screen displaying the faces of a number of people observing the meeting remotely
Chen Gong delivers her flash presentation, supported remotely by Steph Pendlebury of IMSE and two of her supervisors, Mary Ryan and Ifan Stephens.

Hear Chen talk about her work with her other supervisor Rupert Myers in the IMSE podcast episode Concrete Jungle

And we went out to celebrate their successful completion of the course and a lot of good scientific results!

A group of students and staff sitting around restaurant tables raise a glass to the camera in celebration
Congratulations to everybody! And thanks to UpCycle, one of IMSE’s industrial partners, for attending the celebration in person

That was the same evening when we heard the Queen had died… and so began 10 days of state protocol that very few people living in Britain have seen before. This marked the end of a reign and set up the beginning of a new one. And we were marking our own IMSE MRes endings and beginnings.

And now the beginning: new MRes students

Then it was time to greet a new group of students and introduce them to the IMSE experience… starting with a tour of South Kensington, an escape room game and pizza!

 

Find out more about the IMSE MRes course
Find out about what our alumni do after graduating: for example, completing PhD research or working at a biotech start-up.