Celebrating success

Dina Bahrami is studying for an MSc in Medical Biotechnology and Business Management. Her goal is to become an entrepreneur in the ‘nutricosmetics’ industry.

Dina was recently supported by Warwick Enterprise to attended TrepCamp in London. This three-week simulator program focusses on preparing aspiring entrepreneurs to identify and acquire the right skills they need to become a high impact entrepreneur. Congratulations to Dina and her team (Nat.B) for receiving a Golden Ticket to participate in the Global Demo Day 2019 in Los Angeles with their nutricosmetic product for the beauty and wellness industry. Here, teams will pitch their ideas to international experts and investors with the opportunity to turn their entrepreneurial project into reality.

Congratulations to our University Staff Award winners:

WAPTE Winner
Dr Leanne Williams won the 2019 Warwick Award for Personal Tutoring Excellence (WAPTE). This is a new award that recognises staff who have made an outstanding contribution to the support of students through the personal tutoring system. Leanne already holds a Warwick award for teaching excellence and has been doing amazing work supporting our students over the years.

WATE Winner
Dr Rebecca Freeman won a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence (WATE). Beccy has made an enormous difference to SLS by radically changing our approach to teaching and the students’ approach to learning. She has engaged students as collaborators in the development of our curricula and helped us develop rigorous yet innovative and flexible teaching approaches, which have now become examples of best practice for the University.

Public Engagement Contribution
Professor Nick Dale won the Public Engagement Contribution award. Nick explains "the complexities of his subject, the brain, in a way that drives interest from those who know something and a fascination from others who know less".

Supporting Student Employability
David Molyneux, SLS Senior Careers Advisor, won the award for Supporting Student Employability. David is described "As a colleague, he is unstinting in his devotion. He is giving, generous of spirit and passionately cares about students and their employability".

On 19 June, Katy Faulkner won the 'Most likely to win a Nobel Prize' award at the University of Warwick Research Harambee for her poster presentation on 'Resilience of forest soil and root-associated microbial communities to extreme weather events'. Harambee is Swahili meaning working together and helping each other. Featuring a wide variety of activities, the Research Harambee brought undergraduates and postgraduates together to celebrate the research culture at Warwick. Katy is a NERC CENTA PhD student in the Bending lab. Find out more about the Research Harambee.

On 19 June, Amy Newman won both Runner Up and Popular Choice at the University of Warwick Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. 3MT develops academic, presentation, and research communication skills by challenging students to effectively explain their research in engaging, accessible language to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes. Amy is a NERC CENTA PhD student with Professor Gary Bending, investigating the presence and influence of circadian rhythms on plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere. Find out more about 3MT.

Congratulations to undergraduate Beth Hill who has been awarded the SU 'SSLC Secretary of the Year' Representation Award 2019 for her excellent work on the Life Sciences undergraduate Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC). The award recognises Beth's work in facilitating the SSLC’s student voice.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my year as Secretary and for being able to work with other student reps and staff on the committee. It's a really great forum for raising ideas and suggestions to enhance the experience for everyone in Life Sciences. I'd always recommend getting involved and having your say!"

On Thursday 13 June 2019, the School of Life Sciences and Warwick Medical School Athena SWAN committees will jointly be hosting an event on 'Raising Awareness on Bullying and Harassment'.

This FREE event will take place at the Gibbet Hill Campus, University of Warwick.

Please register for this event

If you have any queries, please contact asevent2019@warwick.ac.uk

Congratulations to undergraduate biochemist Katie Savva who came second in the Airbus Student Presentation Competition, at the National Student Space Conference 2019, with her presentation on how our microbiome changes in space. Katie was invited to give a presentation to a panel of industry experts and an audience of students from across the country. She was judged on the technical merit of her topic, potential for development, and quality of presentation.

Congratulations to Mussa Quareshy on winning the Post-Doctoral Research Prize in SLS for his thesis 'The Tetrazole Analogue of the Auxin Indole-3-acetic Acid Binds Preferentially to TIR1 and Not AFB5'. Mussa was supervised by Professor Richard Napier and will receive his prize certificate at the 2nd Warwick Postdoctoral Science Symposium on Tuesday 7 May.
 

A huge congratulations to Ian Hands-Portman who has been shortlisted for a Papin Prize.

These are prestigious awards to be made to technicians across the UK and Ireland who have demonstrated excellence in their field. Ian has been shortlisted for both the core facility and outreach categories.

UniAssist is a widening participation progamme project, led by Jasmin Kaur and her team of fellow SLS undergraduates (Krupa Pandya, Shirly Vijaykumar, Ifeoluwa Ifekoya, Naiomi Bunbury, Sakina Zaidi, Robynn Wisz, Ruby Kumah, Megha Bawa), to raise aspirations and support school students from a low income/low-progression background in being able to make a successful application to various higher education programmes. This project is kindly supported by the department and in particular by the SLS outreach team.

On 6 March, UniAssist held a very successful launch event where 17 sixth-form students from two local schools, Lyng Hall School and Finham Park School visited SLS. The students participated in a professional skills workshop, motivational talks from academics, campus tours and face-to-face mentoring sessions with SLS undergraduates to inspire more students from non-traditional backgrounds into University.

Follow the team on Twitter @Uni_Assist