2013

December 2013 

Grant Denkinson, the Research Archive manager, gave a talk about the “Leicester Research Archive and Open Access to publications and data” to the Researchers Career Discussion Group.

The talk was hosted in the Geology Department. Grant provided a good summary about the different opportunities and schemes in the university to make our publications open-access. The session included a discussion where all participants shared their own experiences in the various departments.

November 2013 

Professor Paul Cullis and Dr Alison Stuart received the Department of Chemistry’s Bronze Athena SWAN award from Professor Dame Julia Higgins at Imperial College London. 

The hard work done within the Athena SWAN committee paid back and we were ecstatic to receive the Bronze award. This was a really good encouragement to focus on our next step: The Silver Award!

September 2013 

The Postdoc Careers Discussion Group organised a poster session for the PDRAs within the College of Science. PDRAs were invited to present a poster with a general description of their research and/or areas they are keen to generate some collaborations. PDRAs from Chemistry, Geology, Geography and Physics presented their research work in the Geography Department. This was a great opportunity for networking and to stimulate potential interdisciplinary research collaborations across the College.

Barbara Villa Marcos attended The Irène Joliot-Curie Conference held at Imperial College London.

The conference is designed to support postdoctoral chemists, especially women, as they plan for the next step in their careers. The conference was inspirational and very motivational. Barbara would recommend final year PhD students and PDRAs to attend, especially to those considering an academic career.

May 2013 

The first meeting for the Researchers Careers Discussion Group took place in the library of the Department of Chemistry. A structure of the group was discussed and there was a very good brain-storming of ideas for future gatherings!