The room was full of tension and enthusiasm on Wednesday 16 February as Warwick’s team, Pistils at Dawn, entered this year’s Botanical University Challenge (BUC). Pistils at Dawn fought well in the closely run competition, coming 11th out of the 18 institutions that entered. Only 4 points separated Pistils at Dawn from the top eight teams, which went on to compete in the finals on 23 February. The Challenge organiser, Dr Jonathan Mitchley sent team Pistils at Dawn “huge commiserations for such a close shave” and told the team to “be proud, very proud” as they were the first ever team to enter for the University of Warwick.
 
Co-captains Jamie Pike and Annabelle de Vries, along with Andy Gladman, Stefania Luca, and reserve Andis Gyori László, were quizzed on a broad range of botanical subjects including botanical literature and art, plant identification, and national flags! The team hopes to enter again next year, with eyes set on top place. You can see how well you fair and meet the teams by visiting the BUC YouTube channel.

In January, PGR student Chitra Joshi took part in GYSS 2022 where she presented her work to a global audience and interacted with Nobel Prize winners. Chitra is studying for a PhD in 'Structural and functional characterization of the major auxin uptake carrier AUX1 protein'.

'In this annual science summit, I got an opportunity to have an informal chat with Professor Ada Yonath (Nobel Prize Winner 2009, Chemistry) which was a great inspiration and cherish-able lifetime's memory. I also had an opportunity to interact with other Nobel Prize Winners in plenary lecture and panel discussion sessions. Overall, this was a great learning experience, and I am grateful to SLS to nominate me as a potential candidate for the Summit.'

Find out more about GYSS

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