The School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine came together on 12 January 2021 for their annual Research Away Day, held virtually for the first time in light of the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.
The annual, all-day event was attended by academic staff, postdocs and postgraduates from across the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, along with guests including the Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences – Professor Jeremy Tavare.
The event offered members the opportunity to showcase ongoing research collaboration at the School, with Dr Cristina Tommasi, Dr Caroline Bull and Dr Alice Halliday co-chairing our respective sessions on ‘The Clinic’, ‘More Basic Science’ and ‘COVID-19’. The latter session demonstrated how the School’s research expertise continues to be at the forefront in efforts to understand and effectively tackle the virus, and showcased the internationally collaborative nature of this effort and our work.
The School’s breadth and quality of research was also exhibited among the entrants of our annual Postgraduate and Postdoctoral poster competitions, where candidates displayed their posters in virtual ‘breakout’ rooms, allowing students, staff and judges the opportunity roam freely between each entry online from the comfort of their desks. Our ‘3 Minute Thesis’ Competition saw entrants explain their thesis or project three minutes or less, and the winner was voted for by poll of attendees. The prizes were presented to the winners at the end of the day by the Research Director, Professor Christoph Wuelfing, and the Head of School, Professor Anne Ridley. Congratulations to our winners:
Postdoctoral Poster Competition
First prize: Tarcisio Brignoli
Second prize: Catherine Tooke
Third prize: David Hill
Postgraduate Poster Competition
Joint First prize: Drinalda Cela
Joint First prize: Emily Milodowski
Third prize: Amy Holt
3 Minute Thesis Competition
Winner: Dr Chris Parker
Our Research Away Day also saw a flurry of photographs submitted to us as part of our Photo Competition – we were delighted to see so much artistic talent amongst our members. The winning entries in each category (pictured) were announced at the end of the day by Professor Matthew Avison.
The day also proved a welcome respite from the pressures of academic workloads; our ‘Find the Five’ game demonstrated commonalities among our staff and students (see our WordCloud image) while Mindfulness and HIIT sessions, led by CMM members Ben Ede and Jordan Sealey, proved just the tonic for screen fatigue!
"The impeccable planning and running of our 2021 Research Away Day at CMM made for an incredible day, particularly given that we had to move online for the first time ever due to the ongoing Pandemic. The talks were excellent and all kept to time. I particularly liked the way the poster sessions ran – it was easy to go between the parallel break-out rooms and allowed for judges to get through all the posters in time."
- Professor Anne Ridley, Head of School, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Photo Competition Winners
Freestyle
Winner: Emily Milodowski
Pets
Joint winner: Charlie Colenso
Joint-winner: Jiahe Lu
Joint-winner: Natasha Clayton
Science
Winner: Alex Hughes-Games
Surviving Lockdown
Winner: Alisa Ritthaphai
Winter Scenes & Celebrations
Winner: Jiahe Lu