Introduction
Hi, my name is Negin Kamyar and I am a 2nd
year PhD student at University of Manchester. I am doing my PhD in Biomedical
materials and I am a part of Bio-Active Materials group headed by Dr. Jonny
Blaker.
So, about my background - I did my bachelor’s
in biomedical engineering in Azad Tehran University. During my bachelor’s, I
worked on fabrication of skin patches for wound healing. As I was getting to
know my research interest more and more in the biomedical field, I became more passionate
to discover new things in my field. To further progress and improve in my field,
I decided to apply to University of Manchester to study my Master’s. I
successfully got accepted to study Biomaterials at University of Manchester and
I graduated with distinction. During my master’s project I worked on the fabrication
of three-dimensional (3-D) materials composed of polymers and two-dimensional
(2-D) materials for bone regeneration. Since I was very excited about my master’s
project, I decided to start my PhD in Biomedical Material and continue my
research with more passion and time. My research is focused on the fabrication
of 3-D bone implants which can be degraded over time so that the body’s new
tissue can replace the degraded implant. These materials can be used for bone
fractures and patients with osteoporosis.
So far, my PhD has been great. I published
one paper in the ACS applied nanomaterials journal and I also presented my work
to one of the biggest world conferences “Material Research Society (MRS)” in
Boston. Participation in this conference gave me the chance to meet a lot of
researchers around the world and learn new things in my field and share my
research with them. I am looking forward to new achievements and opportunities
during my PhD research.
In Depth…
When I was a child, I was always very keen on
studying medicine in the future due to having a strong feeling and passion for
helping people’s lives. My main inspiration in my life was my family who have always
supported me to follow my dreams, since I was a child, and still support me
today. While studying at school I was very enthusiastic about biomedical science
and my parents bought me many science related books which helped me to be sure that
it was what I wanted to do. I remember, when I was in the final year of high
school, I met one of our family friends, who was doing research on heart stents
and I had very long conversation with her about this field. After that day, I
started reading more about the different applications of biomedical devices and
I became more and more interested in inventing biomedical devices to improve
humans’ lives. So, my dream towards medicine always stayed in my mind, but its direction changed to a more
interesting and challenging field for me as biomedical engineer. During my
bachelor’s, I worked on the fabrication of skin patches for wound healing and I
presented my work in an international conference in Poland. One year after
getting my bachelor’s degree, I successfully collaborated in publishing an
academic book in Persian called “Nanomaterial in Biomedical Engineering” with
my supervisor. During my master’s at Manchester University, I found I was more
interested in the topic of bone implants because of current challenges in this
field. In my master’s project, I worked on the fabrication of a 3-D fibre-based
scaffold for potential bone regeneration which could be degraded over time.
Since I was fascinated by my Master’s project,
I decided to continue the topic for my PhD. So, I am currently a second year
PhD student and absolutely love my research with all its challenges and
adventures. My project is a multidisciplinary topic which focuses on the fabrication
of tissue scaffolds with different techniques. These scaffolds are 3-D structures
which are composed of polymers and two-dimensional materials which can mimic
the natural bone’s tissue. These 3-D scaffolds are integrated with biological
factors and cells to mimic the physiological environment. In the physiological
environment, these scaffolds can degrade over time and stimulate the formation
of new tissue. The main aim of this research is finding a new way to help
patients who are suffering from bone fractures and osteoporosis.
Now, I am almost midway through my PhD and I
still absolutely love my research. I find every day challenging and adventurous
for myself. I definitely can say that research is an unlimited area, that every
day I learn and discover new things in my field. Beside doing my research, I
also help other bachelor’s and master’s students in the lab with their projects
which makes me feel more excited about continuing my own research in my field to
a higher level. I have to say that that I am very thankful to all my parents’
support that gave me lots of opportunity to experience an amazing adventure in
my life.
Figure 1 3-D scaffold for bone
regeneration.Going Further…
If you are interested in reading my
paper, please visit the website: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsanm.8b00938?af=R
If you are interest in finding more
information about the biomaterial and our group, please visit the websites: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/jonny.blaker.html and https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/david.lewis-4.html
If you are interested in perusing
Materials sciences, please visit the website: http://www.materials.manchester.ac.uk/
We also have a school blog which
details life as a materials student and interviews a range of students and
lecturers: http://www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/uommaterialsblog/
Introduction
‘Brexit means Brexit!’. The words of the
former Prime Minister, Theresa May, in June 2016, on the steps of the UK
Parliament. But what does Brexit mean?
Hello, my name is Adam. I’m a first year
History PhD student here at The University of Manchester and my research aims
to understand the historical origins of euro-scepticism in the UK. The
2016 referendum produced a political crisis. The Vote Leave campaign narrowly
‘won’ 51.9 to 49.1 on a turnout of 72%. Questions of what it means to be a
member of the EU, a member of The Conservatives, and much more broadly the
British democratic system have been thrown into focus.
For me, my interest in political history was
sparked at a young age. I grew up with the backdrop of the Iraq War — campaigning
as a part of the ‘Stop the War’ coalition. I was able to see how Politics has
the ability to reshape our world, for better and for worse. Understanding the
decisions taken in Westminster – and in constituencies – is therefore important
for me.
In Depth...
I am at the beginning of my research into euro-scepticism
but already there are some important questions that have emerged. For example,
why did the UK government, at the time, decide to use an open-question
referendum rather than, say, a referendum on specific outcomes? Euro-scepticism
is a subject that crosses traditional political boundaries but why? How far did
‘political education’, or lack of education, play in the mind of the voter? Did
one group particularly benefit from worries of Europeanism? How far did the
media present an unquestioning approach to scare stories?
I am in a slightly unusual position to be studying Brexit.
As a historian, there is a tendency to look to events that are settled,
although may be contested by historians! Yet, with the near daily developments
with the UK’s exit from the European Union there is a wealth of new material
emerging. This helps keep my research current, but it also throws up its own
challenges in how I approach the topic.
Understanding political decisions is important for me. I
returned to Manchester to complete a Master’s Degree (immediately before this
Ph.D.) after a number of years in the ‘professional world’. It gave me an
insight into the concerns and ambitions of businesses, yet I knew that I wanted
to further explore my curiosity for History. After decided that I would leave
my job, I quickly rediscovered my love of learning and had a wonderful
opportunity to meet some amazing people (both academics and friends) who
encouraged me to pursue my interest in historical politics further.
Ultimately, I would really like my project to contribute to
a much more detailed understanding of how and why political decisions are
taken. In this, I hope to contribute through various policy platforms and forums
with the aim of ensuring that regional voices are included as much as ‘dominant
narratives’ of the ‘Westminster Bubble’.
Going further…
Looking for further information about Brexit can feel a
little overwhelming, trust me. However, understanding the origins of
euro-scepticism allows us to narrow the field a little and there are some
brilliant resources and blogs which help unpack the subject. For my experience,
an excellent starting place is the ‘Britain in a Changing Europe’ Research
Project run by Professor Anand Menon (https://ukandeu.ac.uk/).
As an academic resource, it is thoroughly fact-checked and many of the
contributors regularly appear in the media.
For a little further clarification of key terms and some of
the ideas often discussed alongside Brexit (such as sovereignty, trade policy,
and the Northern Irish ‘backstop’) see the London School of Economics and
Political Science Brexit Blog (https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/).
Another resource that I regularly use is the BBC’s fantastic ‘Brexitcast’ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05299nl).
Presented as a podcast (although now on TV as well) the podcast is a really
informal way to get the inside track on news and gossip from the UK and Europe.
Introduction
My name is
Asif Majid, and I’m a second-year PhD student in Anthropology, Media, and
Performance. Broadly speaking, my work sits at the intersection of theatre and
the lived experiences of marginalized communities. I research, teach, perform, and
make work at this intersection in a variety of contexts and capacities.
(Storytelling | photo: the stoop)
My PhD research focuses on the ways
in which applied theatre offers insights into the lives of British Muslim youth
in Manchester. Through a series of workshops, performances, and interviews, I
am facilitating a theatre-making process that addresses the sociopolitical
narratives that British Muslim youth face. The process spans the current
academic year (2017/18), after which point I will draw out common themes from
the workshops, performances, and interviews in the writing of my thesis.
In Depth
Both my
academic trajectory and my current research straddle the worlds of performance
and politics, bridging theory/practice and a wide variety of disciplines.
Originally from the US, I earned my BA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Global
Peace Building and Conflict Management) at UMBC in 2013. In 2015, I completed a
MA in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University. During both degrees, I
focused on the ways in which the performing arts are used in conflict situations
and social justice endeavors. Over time, my focus shifted from the broader arts
to theatre in particular. This led me to pursue a PhD under the supervision of
Prof. James Thompson at Manchester, who is one of the world’s leading experts on
applied theatre. My program combines his expertise in Drama with the resources
of the Social Anthropology department, such that I have a supervisor from each.
At the same time, I have been an
active performer across a number of arts (music, theatre, etc.). This
dovetailed with my research inquiries and has allowed me to use my knowledge of
theatre and the wider arts to engage with British Muslim youth who are
participating in my PhD project. I borrow heavily from a particular type of
theatre known as “theatre of the oppressed,” which was developed by Brazilian
theatre practitioner Augusto Boal. I also leverage a process known as
“devising,” which involves making theatre by starting with an idea rather than
a fixed script or text. In my case, the idea is the lived experiences of the project’s
participants and how they want to represent those to a wider public. My task,
essentially, is to facilitate a translation of their lived experiences into
art.
My work is part of a broader
conversation in the UK’s (and the West’s) cultural sector, which is
increasingly thinking about how minority groups are represented in theatre,
music, and dance. In the UK, discourses tend to represent British Muslims in
largely negative ways: as foreigners, terrorists, or zealots. This project (and
my wider work) seeks to push back against these characterizations by putting
British Muslim youth at the center of the conversation about them, rather than
on its fringes. At the same time, it challenges the public conversation about
Britishness, which is continually looking for scapegoats and ways to equate
Britishness with Englishness and whiteness, despite the country’s beautiful
multiculturalism.
(as mowgli in The Jungle Book | photo: Brian Roberts)
Going Further
Playwright
Omar el-Khairy and director Nadia Latif on British Muslims and theatre (https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/13/drama-in-the-age-of-prevent-why-cant-we-move-beyond-good-muslim-v-bad-muslim)
An important
book about Britain’s current struggles with race and multiculturalism (https://unbound.com/books/the-good-immigrant/)
On changing
the narrative around British Muslims (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/05/we-will-not-tackle-extremism-by-stigmatising-muslims)
A valuable book
that critiques the ways that Muslimness is policed and securitized in the UK
& US (https://www.versobooks.com/books/1765-the-muslims-are-coming)
About
theatre of the oppressed (https://cardboardcitizens.org.uk/theatre-oppressed)
On devising
theatre (https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/2014/dec/16/devised-theatre-ten-tips-collaboration)
Drama at the
University of Manchester (https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/drama/)
Anthropology
at the University of Manchester (http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/social-anthropology/)
Introduction
My name is Emma and I’m currently in my first year of a
Health Education England funded PhD within the Division of Pharmacy and
Optometry at the University of Manchester. My A-Levels were in Maths, Biology
and Chemistry and in 2011 I started a Master’s degree in pharmacy, again at the
University of Manchester.
After I graduated from university in 2015 I completed a one
year professional training programme at Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation
Trust. At the end of this year I sat the General Pharmaceutical Council
Pre-Registration exam and qualified as a pharmacist in summer 2016. For the
next year I worked for Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust as a junior
clinical pharmacist and although I did enjoy this job, it was at the start of
2017 I applied for my PhD.
In July 2017 I started my PhD at the University of
Manchester. My research is focussed on developing a compulsory course for undergraduate
pharmacy students to deliver health promotion workshops to high schools
students using the teaching style of peer education.
In depth
The principal of peer education is simply that people are
likely to learn more from individuals of a similar social status to themselves
than from more traditional authority figures. This social status is usually
determined by age but it can also be based on other factors such as ethnicity,
gender or religion. Peer education can be used in many situations to teach
various different topics, including health promotion.
Health promotion involves giving people information to take
control and improve their own health. It is important as it can help change
personal behaviours that can lead to disease and morbidity. Some of these
health behaviours can start early on in life so targeting health promotion within
schools is essential.
My research is therefore based around 3rd year
pharmacy students delivering health promotion workshops to Year 9 and 10 pupils
within schools around Greater Manchester. The workshop topics include mental
health, sexual health and alcohol awareness. The pharmacy students must each
deliver a workshop each in small groups as part of their degree course. The
analysis of the workshops will include if the high school students improved
their knowledge about the topic and also how the experience as a whole affected
the pharmacy students.
Going further
To find out what
we’re up to in Division of Pharmacy and Optometry follow us on twitter: @UoM_PharmOptPGR
Introduction
My
name is Zainab Bibi, and I am doing PhD in the School of Earth and
Environmental Sciences in the University of Manchester. As a well-rounded
student, my interests span across Climate Change, Sustainability and
Atmospheric sciences. The topic of my research is new methods for studying
atmospheric soot. I want to introduce new processes of using the existing
instrumentation and develop novel instruments to further explicate the major
properties of Black Carbon and provide new insights and progress into its major
processes.
Following
my research on Global Universities, I came to conclusion that work being done
in School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester is the
perfect match for my research interests. My passion is to learn about emerging
technologies in the field of Atmospheric sciences and use them to reduce
climate change effects.
In
Depth
The
warming impact of BC is 460 to 1500 times stronger than CO2 and having a varied
from few days to few weeks life time. BC, when placed on the snow and ice,
causes both increase in melting rate and warming of the atmosphere. BC is
produced from the assortment of combustion procedure and is accessible all over
the earth system. It has the unique part in the climate system of earth because
it influences the cloud processes, absorbs solar radiation and alters the ice
cover and snow melting. Another product
of incomplete burning is soot under the hot and air starved conditions. It is
also a part of atmospheric aerosol particles that has received the attention of
health care and climate research communities because of its adverse impacts and
increasing the disease susceptibility leading to cardiovascular, respiratory
and nervous systems diseases in humans. For measuring some of their properties
various instruments are being developed for example light absorption and
scattering at variable wavelengths and elemental and organic carbon
concentrations. On the other hand, new technologies are on their way which
allows us to study about them on the next level, which has not been done in the
past. Therefore my research focuses on new methods for studying atmospheric
soot.
This
research work is of the critical importance because emissions from Black carbon
are the 2nd major cause of current global warming, after CO2 and it affects the
atmospheric content of heat directly and indirectly. By measuring the soot
particles we will attain a full picture of how the soot and other atmospheric
pollutants are affecting the climate and by characterizing how the atmospheric
particles scatter the light and quantifying the particle size and
concentrations. Moreover this type of research work will help the scientists to
understand the impacts of BC towards climate change and what mitigation
strategies would be adapted to reduce its impact on the climate in future.
Going
Further
You
can read about my research center here: http://www.cas.manchester.ac.uk/
You
can read about my school here: http://www.sees.manchester.ac.uk/