Oxford early career researchers shine in Parliamentary competition
Thirteen early career researchers from Oxford were finalists at this year’s STEM for BRITAIN event, held on Monday at the Houses of Parliament, with three winning awards in their categories.
Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said: ‘This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers. These early career engineers, mathematicians, and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.’
Grace Meaker (St Cross College), in the biological and biomedical sciences category, won the Physiological Society Award for her poster entitled Sticky Stem Cells: How PVA promotes blood stem cell production. She said: ‘I was beyond honoured to have been selected to present my work and to have won the Physiology Society Prize at STEM for Britain this year. It was great to speak to my MP, Anneliese Dodds, about how we are using PVA to grow stem cells in the lab to permit novel discoveries about the biology and physiology of stem cells. It is such an exciting time to be in stem cell research and I can't wait to see how the field develops!’
The full list of Oxford finalists are:
- Katherine Benjamin, a DPhil student in the Mathematical Institute.
- Deborah Cotton, a DPhil student in the Department of Physics.
- Sawsan El Zahr, a DPhil student in the Department of Engineering Science.
- Jennifer Clara Herrmann, a DPhil student in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine.
- Fenglin Liu, a DPhil student in the Department of Engineering Science.
- Alvaro Martinez Pechero, a DPhil student in the Department of Engineering Science.
- Grace Meaker, a DPhil student in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine.
- Calum Patel, a DPhil student in the Department of Chemistry.
- Leto Riebel, a DPhil student in the Department of Computer Science.
- Anna Rose, a Clinical Lecturer in the Department of Paediatrics.
- Ana Stuhec, a DPhil student in the Department of Chemistry.
- Chloe Tubman, a DPhil student in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics.
- Xingzao Wang, a DPhil student in the Department of Chemistry.
You can find more information about the competition and view all the finalists’ posters on the STEM for BRITAIN website.