The Doctoral Academy Conference 2019 Celebrates PGR Activity and Research

Over 140 Postgraduate Researchers and Teams took part in the fourth Doctoral Academy Conference on 8th & 9th May 2019, at Mersey Maritime Museum.  The conference theme of “Community” highlighted PhD, Prof Doc and MPhil Students’ research and activities, both in terms of academic study and voluntary work.

The PGR-led event  included Three Minute Thesis competition, Poster and Infoposter competitions, and ended with a pub quiz at The Pumphouse hosted by John Moores Student Union. The keynote speakers explored different aspects of community research:

Keynote Speakers: 

• Being Human: working and developing in and through communities  Prof Rebecca Lawthom, Health, Psychology and Communities, Manchester Metropolitan University
• Pushing Boundaries, Planting Seeds for a Renewed Sense of Community, Polly Moseley, PhD researcher in Natural Science and Psychology, LJMU.

Professor Julie Sheldon, Dean of the Doctoral Academy, presented the inaugural Community Contribution Recognition awards, a new initiative to recognise the valuable contributions PGRs make to communities - whether to the PGR community, through outreach activity or community engagement; or contributing to a local community through civic engagement or voluntary work.

Special congratulations goes out to the prize winners:

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition

1st place: Gemma Griffiths (APS/HSS), Punk feminism in the 1990s: foregrounding riot grrrl as an artistic movement. Gemma’s presentation will now be judged by Vitae as part of UK national 3MT.  2nd: Abbie Romano (FET/BUE) A novel bio-based panel for passive indoor relative humidity regulation for buildings within the UK.  3rd: Ruba Bnyan (SCS/PBS) Needle-free dental anaesthesia.

Poster Competition

1st place: Richie Kirwan (SCS/NSP) A high-protein Mediterranean diet and resistance exercise for cardiac rehabilitation: a pilot randomised controlled trial.  2nd: Hannah Church (SCS/SPS) Longer home-based HIIT intervals elicit a greater improvement in aerobic capacity – a 6 week intervention study.

Infoposter Competition
Winner: Thijs Ackermans (SCS/SPS) Stair falls in the elderly: can we identify people at risk?

Community Contribution Recognition

These PGRs were nominated for being outstanding members of PGR, school or faculty communities, contributing to committees, organising research events, establishing networks, supporting fellow students, or acting as role models. They are enthusiastic ambassadors for their subjects, involved in a wide variety of outreach activities, and volunteer in various capacities in education, sports coaching, advocacy, or in heritage settings among others.

Terry Allen (APM), Sapana Bista (PHI), Victoria Brennan (EDN), Alex Brown (SPS), Richie Paul Carreon (NAH), Elaine Coxon (EDN), Hannah Dalgleish (ARI), Jane Harris (PHI), Rosie Horner (GERI), Bee Hughes (LSA), Owen Jones (SPS), Jenne Lee (SPS), Jen Lynch (LSA), Mohamad Mughal (CIV), Rhana Nicholson (ARI), Maisie Rashman (ARI), James Schofield (LSA), Deborah Talamonti (NSP) and Kagiso Tlhabano (SPS)

Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year – Faculty winners

Dr Scott Foster LBS, Dr Will Hurst FET, Dr Andrea Mallaburn EHC, Dr Nicola Koyama SCS and Dr Peter Millward APS.  The overall winner will be announced at Research and Innovation Day on the 19th June.

Curated images and tweets from the conference are available here https://wke.lt/w/s/jpWhds

Work has begun on The Doctoral Academy Conference 2020, which is also the 100th anniversary of the first UK PhD being awarded.  If anybody has any feedback about the event, please do get in touch at DoctoralAcademy@ljmu.ac.uk  – it’s really helpful to hear any comments about what worked or suggestions for improvement to inform planning next year’s event. Also if any PGRs would like to be involved in planning 2020’s conference, please do get in touch!