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Research Brilliance at the Neuroscience PhD Symposium 2024

Annora Thoeng

School of Neuroscience Communications Manager

11 June 2024

On 4 June 2024, we held the School of Neuroscience PhD Symposium – a showcase of the wide range of research conducted by PhD students across the school.

The School of Neuroscience is home to close to 200 PhD students across four departments – Basic and Clinical Neuroscience (BCN), Centre for Developmental Neurobiology (CDN), Neuroimaging and Wolfson Sensory, Pain and Regeneration Centre (SPaRC). The school is part of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London.

The symposium brings together school members from Guy’s and Denmark Hill and provides a platform to showcase the variety of research activities in the school. Attendees included students and staff from the School, IoPPN and King’s Health Partners.

The day started with a warm welcome from Professor Mark Richardson, Head of School of Neuroscience, calling the event “the highlight of the year for me and the school”. He highlighted the School's research strengths as the second-largest Neuroscience school in the UK, ranking fourth in the world for top research publications in neuroscience and neurology.

The day was divided into four sessions of oral presentations - by third- and fourth-year students - and two sessions for poster presentations by first- and second-year PhD students.

The oral presentation sessions were divided by themes – Pain and Immunity, Diseases and Disorders, Physiology and Pathophysiology, and The Importance of Non-Neuronal Cells. The talks demonstrated the school’s research strength in fundamental research to better understand how the nervous system functions and what can go wrong.

Attendees enjoyed refreshments while learning about more research projects during the poster presentation sessions. Students shared the progress of their work and discussed results with attendees, sharing tips on technical work and offering help to each other. The room was full of energy, promoting collaborations across the school.

Professor Susan Duty, Co-Head of Wolfson SPaRC, gave a speech to close the day. She praised the students for their excellent work and noted that she observed passion and resilience among the students.

Throughout the day, attendees were encouraged to give feedback to all presenters. The day ended with a lively drinks reception, during which the students with the highest scores in each department, and the two best overall winners for best oral presentation and best poster, were presented with prizes by Postgraduate Coordinators Professor Matthew Grubb and Caroline Vance.

The winners of the day are

  • Clara Lenherr - Best Poster (CDN)
  • Maryam Waseem-Saeed - Best Poster (Wolfson SPaRC)
  • Matthew Burrows - Best poster (Neuroimaging)
  • Sahand Farmand - Best poster (BCN)
  • Sahand Farmand - Best poster (overall)
  • Phoebe Reynolds - Best Oral Presentation (CDN)
  • Livvy Houghton - Best Oral Presentation (BCN)
  • Francesca Picco - Best Oral Presentation (Wolfson SPaRC)
  • Laila Rida - Best Oral Presentation (Neuroimaging)
  • Laila Rida - Best Oral Presentation (Overall)

The symposium organisers included PhD student representatives, postgraduate coordinators, and Professional Services staff. The symposium sponsors included VectorBuilder, Cambridge Bioscience, Proteintech, and PCR Biosystems.

Follow this link to learn more about the research themes in the School of Neuroscience. 

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