Postgraduate Conference 2020

Originally scheduled to take place earlier this year in its usual April slot and in the traditional surroundings of Keele Hall, the fifth Keele postgraduate conference, like so many events in our post-Covid world moved to an online virtual environment this year.

Students were asked to present their research in an accessible and inspiring way to an informed, but non-specialist audience of peers, students and staff with a focus on effective and engaging communication.

Students could choose to:

  1. Present their work as a poster, including a brief title and an abstract limited to 200 words. 
  2. Enter the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition; students present their work using just one slide and in just 3 minutes. 
  3. Create Your Doctorate; students present their research in a non-traditional format i.e a poem, painting or picture.

140 visitors joined the conference and we received 30 posters from 9 schools and 8 Three Minute Thesis presentations.

  • Download a copy of the conference programme here 
  • Click to view the book of abstracts, poster gallery and Create your Doctorate ‌entry here.

In between time for networking with the poster presenters, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, Professor David Amigoni chaired a panel, ‘What next? Reflecting on life after doctoral study’.

We were delighted to welcome Dr Jodie Underhill, Research Associate at Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), Dr Amber Regis, Senior Lecturer at University of Sheffield and Dr Jim Walsh, Chief Executive Officer at Conway Hall to offer their insights and reflections on their personal experiences of their experiences both during and after doctoral study.

A series of break-out sessions were arranged and took place following the main conference programme. They featured:

  • Showcasing your PhD for employment and enterprise outside of academia
  • Engaging external partners to create impact from your research
  • Hot topics in Qualitative Research
  • Start to Success community event

Slides from those sessions are available here.

3MT prize winners:

Amy Worrall, School of Pharmacy & Bioengineering (Judge's and People's prize)

Trisha Vikranth, School of Pharmacy & Bioengineering

Mairead Hyland, School of Medicine

Poster prize winners:

The Judges Prizes were awarded to the following people:

1st Prize
Kyle Storey, School of Medicine

2nd Prize
Hannah Cross, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences

3rd Prize
Julie Longson, School of Social, Political & Global Studies

There was a People’s Prize for both winner and runner-up and as with the Three Minute Thesis completion, the voting was incredibly close.

1st Prize

Chris Briggs, School of Computer Science and Mathematics

Joint Runners-up

Hannah Cross, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences

Aimee Merrydew, School of Humanities

Create your Doctorate prize winners:

Amy Worrall, School of Pharmacy & Bioengineering (Judge's and People's prize)

Watch the conference

Held on Monday 23rd November 2020.