Author: Kathryn Johnson

NHLI Athena SWAN Lecture 2016

NHLI ASRegistration is now open for the NHLI Athena SWAN Lecture 2016 by Prof Fiona Watt FRS, taking place on Wednesday 20th of January.

Prof Watt will be talking about her exciting research – Intrinsic and Extrinsic Regulation of Epidermal Stem Cell Fate and also about her career path and how she got to where she is now. The talk is scheduled for 16:00 and will be followed by a reception where you will have a chance to talk to Prof Watt and mingle with your colleagues.

You can register for the event by e-mailing me (aino-maija.maskuniitty08@imperial.ac.uk).

Surgery and Cancer’s first Athena SWAN Lecture

Dept MeetingYou are invited to attend our Department’s first Athena SWAN Lecture, which will be delivered by Miss Clare Marx, President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception and we will be providing crèche facilities to facilitate those of you with childcare responsibilities to attend.

Please register in advance via our events page and email Kathryn Johnson k.johnson@imperial.ac.uk by the 27th November if you require crèche facilities.

UK Software Carpentry workshop for Women in Science and Engineering

The Software Sustainability Institute in collaboration with ARCHER and Women in HPC is organising the first Software Carpentry workshop for Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) in the UK. The event will take place at the University of Manchester on 14-15 December 2015.

The course is aimed at female postgraduate students, researchers and engineers who are familiar with basic programming concepts (like loops, conditionals, arrays, and functions) but need help to translate this knowledge into practical tools to help them work more productively.

Apart from learning a set of useful skills the participants will have a unique opportunity to network and discuss their experiences in working in computational research area. More details and registration:

http://apawlik.github.io/2015-12-wise-uk/

NET Cancer Day

NET CAncer day 2015 _HH2Anna Malczewska, an external PhD Student from Poland (funded by a research fellowship of the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society) worked with the Clinical Trials Unit at Hammersmith Hospital, in holding a NET Cancer Day event on the 3rd November 2015, to raise awareness of neuroendocrine cancers around the world.

Stimulating research and collaboration in trauma

image001You are cordially invited to attend the Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies Annual Networking Event on Tuesday 24th November at 10:30am.

The event will take place at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, South Kensington Campus.

image002A schedule of speakers and details of registration can be found here.

Please contact cbis@imperial.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Young Scientists attend Annual Meeting of New Champions 2015 in China

WEF 4

Each year, the World Economic Forum selects 40 outstanding young scientists from around the world to participate alongside global business and political leaders in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions. These scientists are selected from a wide range of disciplines and deliver updates on the latest trends and developments from various branches of science.

This year, Dr Kirill Veselkov and Dr Jia Li were nominated and successfully selected to join the Young Scientist programme in China. Both attended the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, which took place on 9-11th September in Dalian, People’s Republic of China.

Dr Kirill Veselkov, Lecturer in Computational Medicine, said ‘The event was truly impressive, and was attended by high profile guests from all key stakeholder groups in translational science including senior statesmen, policy makers, entrepreneurs and scientists, regulatory organisations and publishing groups. The panel sessions and live debates were very interesting and showcased the work of the brightest young scientists in the world. The meeting was also a fantastic opportunity for me to expand my network of international collaborators for the future.

Dr Jia Li, Lecturer in Computational Medicine wrote: “I was really honoured to be selected to attend this Annual Meeting and it was a fantastic and unforgettable experience. The format of the meeting was dynamic and interactive. As a basic scientist working in biomedical research, my favourite sessions at the conference were held at the Health Dome and the IdeasLab. In the Health Dome, we had interesting discussions about current and future health issues and policies and it was great to hear the opinions from people of different backgrounds. The presentations given at the Ideas Lab were impressive and I’d like to congratulate the Synthetic Biology team, who performed an excellent session there. After the meeting at Dalian, I was also invited to attend an IC alumni event in Beijing on the 12th September. It was a great pleasure to meet both IC alumni of 30 years, as well as prospective IC students.”

WEFKey points to emerge from this year’s meeting included the announcement that a European Innovation Council (EIC) is likely to be created within the next few years to encourage applied, commercially-driven research, and the statement from NIH that there would be a continued shift from “project based” to “person based” funding with more grants being awarded to individual investigators.

Nature Publishing Group also announced plans for a double-blind peer-review model, with the possibility for authors to withhold their names and affiliations from reviewers. It is likely that an open, interactive peer-review process would be introduced to some of the Nature journals early next year.

Detailed dialogue was also held between all major stakeholders regarding the global economic downturn, the anticipated impact this will have on research funding over the next few years, and potential measures to counteract this slowdown.

Upcoming events in 2015

  • Thinking about a baby?
    Workshop aimed at all Postdocs in the Faculty of Medicine to explore the issues surrounding having a baby
    8th October , 2 pm – 2nd Floor Clinical Science Centre Seminar Room

          More details

  • Surgery and Cancer Departmental Meeting
    Meeting for all S&C staff to discuss changes to the Department and the upcoming Silver Athena SWAN application
    21st October, 3:30 pm – G34, SAF Building, South Kensington
  • How to support staff going on maternity leave
    This event is designed for managers in the Faculty of Medicine who want to know more about how to support staff going on maternity and paternity leave. The session will include a question/answer session covering the most common queries from both managers and staff, and a number of case studies of common scenarios and conversations which need to be held between managers and the staff going on leave.
    28th October, 3:00 pm – Wolfson cafe area, Hammersmith
  • First Departmental Athena SWAN Lecture
    Surgery and Cancer’s first Athena SWAN Lecture, delivered by Miss Clare Marx, the first female President of the Royal College of Surgeons
    2nd December, 5:00 pm – G34, SAF Building, South Kensington,