January Meeting of the Early Stage Researchers

The Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) involved in the Grant met for two days on 17/18 January 2019 at the University of Leeds to exchange research ideas and work on an outreach programme for the year ahead.

Ideas for engaging activities to present at the British Science Festival in September were developed, and learning resources were shared.  The group agreed to start working on individual short videos that give insight to life as a scientist as well as about their research contribution to the Project.

Santosh Kumar Meena (University of Sheffield) and Craig Devonport (University of Warwick) delivered an excellent seminar on molecular dynamic modelling to over 60 research Post-graduates and staff from the Schools of Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Earth & Environment, and Engineering.  This relaxed seminar was designed to be an accessible introduction to molecular dynamics to encourage people to ask questions and discuss opportunities to collaborate.  It was received with much enthusiasm and we will run more of these types of seminars over the year to include both experimental and computational techniques.

The scientific schedule on day two allowed the ESRs to share their results to date, along with future plans.  Specific collaboration routes were established following all talks and an exciting set of experiments have been designed for 2019. Following these talks the Group had a tour of the electron microscopy facilities available in the Faculty of Engineering, and the laboratory space in the School of Chemistry.

A packed room to see the Seminar