Chemical Engineering PhD Symposium

PhD students showcased their work on our annual PhD Symposium. The day-long event was opened by a distinguished seminar and closed by a reception.

[Article written by Dora Olah an Undergraduate student in the Department.]

Every year since 2006, final year PhD students have had the opportunity to showcase their work to the whole Department, the College, and invited Industrial sponsors in the form of 20-minute oral presentations at the Chemical Engineering PhD Symposium. Students from all year groups are also invited to present their work at a poster session. Prizes were available for the best oral and poster presentations with one competition judged by a panel of strict judges and the second based on the student vote. The day is traditionally opened by a distinguished guest lecture and finished with a drinks reception where all the winners are announced by the Head of Department.

The opening lecture - also the last lecture in this year's Distinguished Seminar Series - was given by Professor Joaquim M. S. Cabral from the Insituto Superior Técnico, Portugal. His lecture, titled "Bioprocess engineering strategies for stem cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine", was about the bioprocess concepts towards the ex vivo expansion and differentiation of stem cells in bioreactors including the recent developments and the new approaches in the field.

The lecture was followed by fourteen PhD presentations over the course of the day. They covered a wide range of topics from multi-parametric optimization through hybrid biomimetic gold nanoparticles to decontamination of metal treated wood waste. Academics and fellow PhD students watched how the presenters explained their respective research fields and competently answered even the trickiest questions.

In the lunch break the audience headed towards the Design Rooms where twenty superb posters were presented. The judges (who comprised both academic and non-academic representatives) walked around and evaluated all the posters while the students who created the posters were standing next to their piece of work, ready to answer any questions or explain the whole topic from scratch.

At the end of the day, Professor Andrew Livingston, Head of Department, announced the winners of the presentation and poster prizes.

Oral presentation prizes:

Academic panel:

1^st prize (£400): Marie Bachelet

2^nd prize (£300): Andris Piebalgs

3^rd prize (£200): Izzati Mohd Noor

Student vote:

1^st prize (£200): Marie Bachelet

2^nd prize (£100): Joseph Yao

3^rd prize (£50): Manuela Nania

Poster prizes:

Academic & non-specialist panel:

Best poster (£100): Poster 18 – Shiqi Wang

Runner up (£50): Poster 1 – Clementine Chambon

Student vote:

Best poster (£60): Poster 11 – Lorena dos Santos de Souza

Runner-up (£40): Poster 20 – Marco Adamo

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