Imperial Natural Sciences blog

In December 2021 PhD students from Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP), Dyson School of Design Engineering (Dyson) and Business School (ICBS), organised an event in response to COP26 and the environmental crisis.

‘Beauty of a More Colourful World’ brought together twelve postgraduate research students from six different departments to showcase how their research ties into addressing environmental problems. In this blog post one of the organisers, Yurong Yu, reflects on the experience.

Author: Yurong Yu | Photo credits: Yunwan Tao.

My fellow co-organiser, Neel Le Penru, and I initiated this event because we realised that the complexity of environmental problems requires interdisciplinary collaboration, so opportunities for interdepartmental communication among researchers is vital. It’s also crucial for junior researchers to learn how to communicate their research to a non-specialist audience, to achieve a greater impact.

After some discussion we came up with the idea of inviting interactive and entertaining presentations from multiple departments, using different formats such as demos, prototypes, installations and games to inspire members of our Imperial community. The title, Beauty of a more colourful world, not only refers to the colourful environmental system, but also our diverse Imperial research community. The “flash mob” element came about because of the tight timeline – normally an event like this takes months to plan and carry out, but we didn’t want to miss the perfect window created by COP26, so we sped up and made it come true in five weeks! (more…)

Read Beauty of a more colourful world: CEP X Dyson X ICBS PhD Flash Mob #1 in full

In this post Anna Goodwin and Ella Robson, our FoNS Wellbeing Advisors, explain what impostor syndrome is and share their tips for keeping those niggling feelings of inadequacy – at university, work and in social situations – at bay.

By Anna Goodwin and Ella Robson

First off, well done for making it to the end of this term! Hopefully you’re now starting to feel settled in your routine, and enjoying your course and all that student life has to offer.

If this not the case for you, however, then fear not – you’re almost certainly not alone. The later part of the autumn term can be a tricky time to navigate. With Freshers’ and start of term events now a distant memory, longer evenings drawing in and the reality of course demands kicking into gear, it’s understandable if you feel a little disheartened or overwhelmed.

If you also find yourself doubting whether you deserve your place on the course, or whether you belong at Imperial, then you may be experiencing a phenomenon known as impostor syndrome. (more…)

Read Impostor Syndrome, anyone? in full

Sofia Palazzo Corner is a PhD student at the Centre for Environmental Policy, and part of the Imperial delegation heading to COP26.

My research is about extremes in the Earth system (think rapid permafrost thaw, AMOC collapse) and specifically about finding a way to include these in simple climate models. The aim is to more fully represent the spectrum of plausible warming that could occur by 2100, taking into account the current uncertainty in many of the Earth system processes. As part of my research, I’m consulting researchers in different areas of climate science to obtain their expert judgement on the range of plausible behaviour within the Earth subsystems that they study. This is sometimes our best source of information when observational or model data is missing. (more…)

Read FoNS at COP26: Sofia Palazzo Corner in full

Paul Brown is Mechanical Instrumentation Workshop Manager in the Department of Physics. He’s worked on projects such as the Solar Orbiter and the Interstellar Mapping Acceleration Probe (currently being built), was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Higher Education in 2017 and has recently been shortlisted for the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the prestigious Papin Technical Prizes.

In this blog post he reflects on his experiences as a lab and instrumentation technician within an academic environment, and gives us insight into the projects he’s been involved in from a technician’s perspective. (more…)

Read From student labs to outer space: a day in the life of a Physics technician in full

Patrick Walkden is a PhD student in the Department of Life Sciences, and part of the Imperial delegation heading to COP26.

My area of research focuses on biodiversity responses to environmental change, including land use and climate change. Currently I am working to develop a biodiversity indicator that measures and tracks the functional intactness of an ecosystem compared to a baseline. That is, looking at the amount of functional diversity – the aspect of biodiversity that is related to ecosystem functioning, and ultimately Nature’s Contributions to People – retained in ecosystems since human influence. An indicator like this would allow us to identify areas of conservation priority, to project into the future under different potential climate or land use mitigation scenarios and identify what actions would yield the greatest biodiversity outcomes in these scenarios. (more…)

Read FoNS at COP26: Patrick Walkden in full

Paloma Ortega Arriaga is a PhD student at the Grantham Institute, and also affiliated to the Department of Physics. She’s also part of the Imperial delegation heading to COP26.

My research is on energy access focusing on off grid renewable systems, specifically solar energy. My research project is mostly related to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which is to provide universal access to affordable, reliable and clean energy by 2030. However, there are currently millions of people who don’t have access to energy, mostly in rural areas of sub Saharan Africa and Asia. I investigate the techno-economic feasibility of off grid systems to provide them access using renewable sources instead of using, for example, diesel generators that some of these communities often rely on, which are generally more expensive and polluting. I also consider the economic and environmental implications of different electrification options. (more…)

Read FoNS at COP26: Paloma Ortega Arriaga in full

Galina Jönsson is a PhD student in the Department of Life Sciences, and part of the Imperial delegation heading to COP26.

In the broadest possible terms, my research is about biodiversity trends – specifically, I extend biodiversity time series backwards in time by using Natural History Museum specimens to cover the whole period of accelerating human pressures. This includes climate change effects (such as rising average temperatures and increased frequencies of extreme weather events), as well as land use changes. I focus on butterfly specimens collected over the past two centuries to develop novel statistical ‘time-travelling’ methods.   (more…)

Read FoNS at COP26: Galina Jönsson in full

Courtnae Bailey is a PhD student at the Centre for Environmental Policy, and part of the Imperial delegation heading to COP26.

My research is on climate change adaptation finance, more specifically, trying to increase private investment in climate change adaptation solutions.

This focus stems from more of a personal background – I’m from the Caribbean, from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. For us, climate change isn’t something on a future horizon, it’s what we’re experiencing now, yet small island developing states are responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. My work looks specifically at mobilising private finance to adapt; a lot of countries facing the biggest immediate threats from the climate crisis don’t have the capacity to both deal with development issues locally, and also adapt to climate change. (more…)

Read FoNS at COP26: Courtnae Bailey in full

Krista Halttunen is a PhD student at the Centre for Environmental Policy, and part of the Imperial delegation heading to COP26.

I’m an interdisciplinary social scientist working in energy and looking at the transition to sustainable energy. Specifically, I’m asking, if we do meet the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement, what does that mean for the global oil industry? So, tangibly, how do we ramp down our oil use? What happens to companies and all those stakeholders that rely on them? (more…)

Read FoNS at COP26: Krista Halttunen in full

Dr Emma Cavan is a Fellow in the Department of Life Sciences at Silwood Park. Her research focuses on the vital role that Antarctic krill (small ocean crustaceans) play in biogeochemical cycles (where biological, geological and chemical aspects of a natural cycle are considered). 

Emma will be heading to Glasgow, taking the case for krill to the COP26 climate conference this year as part of Imperial’s delegation. As well as taking the opportunity to share her research and hear from other delegates, she’ll attend the release of a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) short animation, which explains the connection between krill and sinking carbon. She was involved behind-the-scenes in the making of the animation as an advisor, and looks forward to presenting her field of research to UN delegates via this creative collaboration. Plus, she’s on a panel at an event outside of the main COP on climate action and fishing, with the NGO Our Fish. (more…)

Read Krill, climate change and COP26 in full