11 Mar 2014
Conference highlights cross-campus health and well-being research
Last month’s Health & Wellbeing Research Conference enabled more than 150 PhD researchers and staff to share their latest research with colleagues from across the campus.
Organised by the University’s Research School of Health & Wellbeing, the fourth annual conference showcased Loughborough’s wide-ranging healthcare-related research.
It brought together students from Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Loughborough Design School, Information Science, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences.
Fifty research posters were on display and were judged by academics and research staff. Nine of the students, selected by an academic panel after reviewing abstract entries, were also invited to do short presentations on their work in plenary sessions held throughout the day.
Winners and runners-up (listed below) received a certificate and cash prize, sponsored by the Enterprise Office and Scientific Lab Supplies Ltd.
Vice Chancellor Professor Robert Allison opened the event, with Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research Professor Myra Nimmo outlining the research challenges in Health & Wellbeing.
Director of the Health & Wellbeing Research Challenge Professor David Williams also spoke and introduced this year’s keynote speaker Dr Richard Bibb (Reader in Medical Applications of Design), who presented his current research and reflected on his time spent in research.
Prof Williams said:
"This year's conference has confirmed the importance of making this a student driven and led event - it was a great to hear both new researchers presenting their work and how newer faculty members had chosen to develop their careers."
Dr Bibb added: "The Health & Wellbeing Conference provided a great opportunity to see the incredible breadth and depth of research at Loughborough.
“It was great to see so many high quality presentations and posters from our PhD students and gives us great confidence that research in health and wellbeing is thriving now and will continue to thrive into the future."
Winners and runners up from the day are as follows:
Best Poster
Winner: Preeti Puntambekar (Wolfson School)
Runner-Up: Clare Holley (SSEHS)
Best Poster Defence
Winner: Nicholas Wragg (SSEHS)
Runner-Up: Sarah Clayton (Maths Education Centre)
Best Oral Presentation
Winner: David Smith (Wolfson)
Runner-Up: Emily Knox (SSEHS)
Research Impact Award
Winner: Serena Morelli (Chemical Engineering)
The winning posters and photos from the day can be found on the conference website.
Organisers would like to thank the Research Challenge of Health & Wellbeing for funding the event and the additional support received from the SSEHS Research Committee and the Graduate School Research Culture Fund.
Pictured: Key note speaker Dr Richard Bibb