Yogarajah Nanthagaopan has successfully completed the first PhD in Project Management from the Faculty of Management. He was supervised by Dr Nigel L. Williams and Professor Stephen Page and his thesis was titled: A Resource Based Perspective on Project Management in NGOs. Dr Nanthangaopan has returned to his native Sri Lanka and is the current Head of Economics and Management department and Coordinator for the BBM in Project Management degree program at the Faculty of Business Studies, Vavuniya Campus of the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
Tagged / PhD
Alternative Career Pathways after your PhD – 8 June
Live online event on the 8th June 2017
The academic jobs market is becoming more challenging and competitive post-PhD. With the number of PhD holders increasing, there is enormous pressure on the academic job market and declining academic job prospects for doctoral graduates.
What can I do after my PhD? It is a difficult decision for any PhD student on whether to pursue a career in academia, or consider alternative careers. In our dedicated live Q&A we are bringing forth a panel of experts who have moved outside of academia, to share their top tips and advice on alternate career pathways following PhD studies.
To help all those who are considering options after doctoral studies, jobs.ac.uk is holding a FREE 60-minute live video event via a live YouTube Q&A called ‘Alternative Career Pathways After Your PhD’. Find out more and register today.
More details are at: http://bit.ly/altcareersevent
PhD student from Creative Technology got a paper accepted in a premium conference
Jing WANG, a PhD student in the department of Creative Technology, SciTech, just got a paper accepted by 26th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAi 2017). IJCAi (http://ijcai-17.org/), is a premier AI conference in the world. Jing’s paper, co-authored with Feng Tian (SciTech), Hongchuan Yu (FMC) and Changhong Liu (SciTech), “Multi-Component Nonnegative Matrix Factorization”, is one of the papers accepted, out of 2540 submissions, after going through an extremely selective review (acceptance rate: ~25%).
Standing up for Science media workshops- applications now open!
Early career researchers- this is your chance to find out how your voice can be heard in the media!
Sense about Science will be running Standing up for Science media workshops for early career researchers to learn from scientists who have or are actively engaged with the media. You can also hear from respected science journalists who will teach you how the media works, how to respond and comment. As well as hearing what journalists want and expect of scientists. The first workshop of 2017 will be on Friday 7 April, at the University of Manchester.
The workshop is open to early career researchers and scientists (PhD students, post-doctoral fellows or equivalent) in all sciences, engineering and medicine and is free to attend. The event will discuss science-related controversies in media reporting with practical guidance tips for working with the media.
Apply by 9am on Tuesday 21 March or click here for more information.
Faculty of Management: PhD students of the year 2016
Great news; two PhD students from the Faculty of Management, Department of Tourism and Hospitality have won PhD student of the year 2016.
Sarah Pyke; Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) PhD Student of the Year 2016 was awarded her prize at the House of Commons on July 20, 2016. Her research ‘A Systems Theory Approach to the Well-being Effects of Tourism’ was supported by the National Coastal Tourism Academy (NCTA) and was part of the ESRC Destination FeelGood project. It extends the forefront of the tourism discipline and makes a unique contribution to knowledge by using Hagerty’s systems theory approach (a model extracted from the public health sector and for the first time applied in a tourism context) to quantitatively measure the well-being effects of tourism on the individual.
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Sarah Price; EUROCHRIE, (the biggest Hospitality Conference in Europe) PhD Student of the Year 2016 was awarded her prize in Budapest, October 2016. Her research ‘Trust in Foodservice’ was supported by the EU project FoodSMART and identified key factors that consumers look for when selecting meals in workplace canteens. The project offered her the opportunity to be part of an International research team and take secondment periods in both France and Austria.
Many congratulations to you both – we are very proud of you
Fundraising for the Hearts Milk Bank at BU
On the 17th of November, The World Prematurity Day, there was a fundraising cake sale for the Hearts Milk Bank.
The amount raised will help to either
– feed 14 babies for a day
– or feed 3 babies for 5 days, the average time they need donor milk
– or buy enough containers for 55 mums to start donating milk
– or buy almost 3 transportation bags.
The Hearts Milk Bank is therefore 1 step closer to provide donor milk for babies born too soon or too sick!
I would like to thank anyone who has made this cake sale possible, the bakers and the buyers, the great people who donated money, SUBU, and the people helping me on the day. You are awesome!
Gillian Weaver, co-founder of the bank contacted me to say “We are so grateful to you Isabell and to everyone who supported your cake sale on World Prematurity Day. You raised a fantastic amount and we will put it to very good use helping to ensure that all premature and sick babies get access to safe and assured supplies of donor milk irrespective of where they are born in the UK. We know that this not only helps to prevent tiny babies from life threatening illnesses but also supports their mothers whilst they build up their own breastmilk supply. The Hearts Milk Bank (the bank with a difference) will also be a biobank of breastmilk samples for much needed research into breast cancer so your support for us is doubly valuable!”
If you would like to learn more about donor milk visit the website of the UK Association for Milk Banking.
If you would like to learn more about the Hearts Milk Bank or would like to donate, please click here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hearts-milk-bank-saving-tiny-babies-helping-mums-cancer
I learned about donor milk as part of my PhD thesis at BU, focusing on the effects of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the perinatal period. If you are interested in our research please contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk
Many thanks, Isabell
Winner of “The strength of young graduates contest”.
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Last Friday a postman knocked at my parent’s house in Italy.
He carried a parchment, from The National Strength and Condition Association.
On it is written that my Master Degree Thesis won “The strength of young graduates contest” as second best Italian research in its field.
The study of 2015, is titled: “THE BIOMECHANICS EVALUATION IN STUDYING THE MOTION – COGNITION RELATIONSHIP” and can be summarised as follow:
using a system of 8 QTM cameras and a force plate, I measured the effect of different tasks upon the static balance in 20 young volunteers.
To do so, I asked them to perform four tasks in a randomised order, while I was recording their centre of pressure (with force plate) and centre of mass (with 3D motion capture system).
Tasks were:
- Open Eyes (OE). The participants were instructed to hold a steady position, standing up with their feet together, for 30s.
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- Closed Eyes (CE). Same position as OE, but participants were instructed to keep their eyes closed for 30s.
- Cognitive Dual Task (COGN-DT). Holding the same steady position, I asked them to countdown aloud, backwards in threes from a number that I randomly chose.
- Motor Dual Task (MOT-DT). Same position, but for this task volunteers were instructed to move their fingers (of the right hand) and touch their thumb alternately, for 30s.
What the result told us was that the COGN-DT was causing more perturbation, followed by the CE task.
Special thanks go to the people who helped me at the MotionLab in Naples (Giuseppe Sorrentino, Laura Mandolesi and Pasquale Varriale), and to my current supervisors (Alison McConnell, Tom Wainwright and James Gavin) who believed in me by giving me the opportunity to be here today.
Looking forward, with hope to collect more milestones.
Thanks.
BU highly represented at the 4th international SIGNEC Conference in London
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SIGNEC U.K. is a special interest group for NEC set up by Prof Minesh Khashu, Consultant in Neonatal Medicine, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University. NEC or Necrotising Enterocolitis is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in preterm newborns. We do not understand well what causes NEC and unfortunately there has not been much progress in this area of clinical care in the last couple of decades. This led Prof. Khashu to set up this group.
The aim of SIGNEC U.K. is to facilitate knowledge sharing, networking and collaboration to optimise research and improvements in practice.
SIGNEC U.K. includes neonatologists, paediatricians, surgeons, dieticians, transfusion medicine specialists, epidemiologists, basic science researchers, nurses, trainees and other healthcare professionals with an interest in NEC and health improvement.
The group and its conferences attract the best researchers in the field from all over the world to share recent advances and improvements in practice. The conferences are unique in terms of scientific meetings as they have very strong involvement from parents/families. The work of this group has been very well received by clinicians, researchers and parents and it has become an important part of the global academic neonatal/prematurity/NEC calendar.– Prof Minesh Khashu
Recently, the 4th international SIGNEK UK conference in London brought together all these specialists in the field, as well as parents, to discuss the latest basic and clinical research findings and improvements in practice.
My supervisor Dr Simon Dyall and I were delighted to be invited to attend this event, since, together with Minesh, we are looking at the role of essential fatty acids in perinatal health. As stated above, NEC is a major health concern in the perinatal period, which potentially benefits from essential fatty acids. Furthermore, the event was a perfect opportunity to network with people working in the field of perinatal health and to get more ideas for future research.
One of my personal highlights was the panel discussion on laboratory models of NEC, which was the first in the world to happen at SIGNEC UK 2016. Furthermore, I was impressed by the active involvement of parents, some of them who have lost a child to NEC, in the conference.
One of the non-scientific/clinical highlights was of course the tour through Chelsea Football Stadium during the lunch break.
Many thanks to Prof Minesh Khashu for organising the event and for the invitation and to Bournemouth University for the funding which made my attendance possible.
If you would like to learn more about SIGNEC UK or attend next year’s conference, please contact Prof Minesh Khashu at mineshkhashu@gmail.com
If you would like to learn more about our research, please do not hesitate to contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk
Isabell
World Prematurity Day – 17th November – Cake Sale
Would you donate a cake/cupcakes?
Date: 17th November
Time: 11.30-13.30
Venue: BoHo Lounge, Ground floor, Bournemouth House
Cake drop off on the morning of the 17th in R304 or B112a
Preterm born babies are at high risk to develop a wide range of complications.
Some of these complications can be prevented by feeding babies with human breast milk.
Therefore, the WHO recommends human donor milk as best alternative if mother’s own milk is not available!
The HEARTS MILK BANK is currently crowd funding to buy the needed equipment to start providing donor milk for babies born too soon or too sick, to improve their chance of survival and health!
All money from the cake sale will be directly donated to the Hearts Milk Bank!
If you want to donate a cake or receive more information please contact
Isabell Nessel inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk
2017 BU PhD Studentship Competition!!!
Call for submission of up to 48 funded Postgraduate Research Projects now OPEN
The Graduate School is delighted to announce the launch of the 2017 BU PhD Studentship Competition, with up to 48 funded projects available.
At this stage, Academic Staff are invited to submit proposals for studentship projects which, if successful, will be advertised to recruit PhD candidates for a September 2017 start.
Full details can be found on the Graduate School Staff Intranet where the following information can be found:
- BU PhD Studentship Competition 2017 Policy
- Studentship Proposal Form
- Matched Funded BU PhD Studentships Flyer
Submission Deadline:
Applications should be submitted on the Studentship Proposal Form to the Graduate School via email to phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk no later than 9am on Monday 9 January 2017.
The Graduate School will manage the recruitment process along the following timetable:
Date | Action |
1 November 2016 | Launch PhD Studentships Internal Competition – development of proposals |
9 January 2017 | Closing date for submission of proposals |
23 January – 10 Feb 2017 | Panel meetings |
Before 28 Feb 2017 | Feedback to supervisors and preparation of adverts |
March – June 2017 | Launch PhD Studentships External Competition – recruitment of candidates |
September 2017 | Successful Candidates start |
Focus group on PhD mobility – UK PhD students wanted!
The Universities UK International (UUKi) focus group on PhD mobility will take place on Thursday 1 December 2016 at the UUKi offices, Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ.
UUKi houses the ‘Go International’ Programme and UK Strategy for Outward Mobility, which aims to increase the number of UK-domiciled students spending time abroad as part of their UK degree. PhD students are heavily underrepresented in UK outward student mobility figures, and many PhD outward mobility opportunities for UK students – such as the Newton Fund China and India PhD placement calls– are very undersubscribed.
To help UUK better understand why this is the case, UUKi is holding a focus group of 16-20 UK- domiciled students, from any discipline, currently undertaking a PhD at a UK institution, who have been abroad, are considering going abroad, have decided against going abroad, or have not considered this option at all. Through this group, they hope to explore PhD students’ perceptions of mobility, as well as to better understand some of the key barriers and challenges they face when considering going abroad.
If you have any questions about the focus group at all, please direct these to – Marta Lezzerini: marta.lezzerini@international.ac.uk . See the flyer below for details of how to attend this event.
Findings from the focus group will be distributed to both the Newton Fund Network, and the Outward Mobility Network in late December.
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BU’s PhD Isabell Nessel at the Human Milk Bank in Southampton, Princess Anne Hospital
Most of you have probably heard/read about human milk banking by now from me or my previous posts, if not read here more about it. This week, I had the opportunity to meet Anita Holloway-Moger, the Human Milk Bank Nursery Nurse at the Princess Anne Hospital Human Milk Bank in Southampton.
It was a great opportunity to finally visit and see a milk bank and speak to the person responsible to gain more practical insight into human milk banking in the UK, instead of only reading about it for my research.
Human donor milk comes from mothers who have had several blood tests and is collected from the mothers’ homes by the milk bank staff and/or the blood bikes. The frozen milk then gets processed in the milk bank, which means it is tested for microbiological contamination and pasteurised (heat treated) to make it save for the premature or sick babies to receive. This has been shown to increase their chance of survival and help their development.
Thank you Anita for taking all the time to answer my questions and for showing me around, as well as Bournemouth University for the funding which made my trip possible!
If you would like to find out more about human milk banking in the UK or want to become a human milk donor visit the UK Association for Milk Banking website at http://www.ukamb.org/.
If you would like to learn more about our research, please feel free to contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk
Isabell
2 Nuffield students gaining hands-on research experience at BU
During the last 4 weeks, Sophie and Rose (left and middle in the picture), two AS level students, have spent their summer holidays gaining hands-on laboratory research experience at BU during their Nuffield Research Placement. Together with Dr Simon Dyall and PGR Isabell Nessel (right in the picture), they have worked on a research project which is investigating ways to increase the intake of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in preterm infants. Rose and Sophie have been helping to develop and validate a method to measure the fatty acid content of preterm formula milks by using gas chromatography (see picture).
“As for the internship, I enjoyed it a lot. It was nice getting out of the classroom and working on something that had the potential to help people. I learnt a lot of new skills that’ll help me when I’m writing my application for university as it will show that I already have experience in a laboratory as well as give me a head start to any laboratory work I do in my degree. It’s shown that things often don’t go as smoothly as planned and you have to do a lot of problem solving and repeating along the way, but it’s also made clear to me that I do want to head in the direction of research in the future.” – Sophie
“This is the first year BU has offered Nuffield Research Placements and Sophie and Rose have been excellent students. The Placements give students the opportunity to get hands-on experience of working in a research environment, meet new people and learn new skills, and importantly help them decide if a degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subject is right for them. It has been a pleasure to host Sophie and Rose this year, and they have been of great help to our work.” – Simon
“For me it was an excellent opportunity to develop my mentoring skills, get the chance to inspire younger students for a career in research, and getting some extra helping hands for my project. The girls were eager to learn and motivated for the lab work and I wish them all the best for their studies. Overall, it was a nice experience which I would recommend to other PGRs and their supervisors.” – Isabell
Many thanks to Sophie and Rose for their help and to the Nuffield Foundation for the organisation of the placements!
The Nuffield Foundation offers Nuffield research placement for motivated students during the summer holidays to discover what a career in STEM might look like. If you would wish to find more about the program or think of offering a placement yourself next year please click here.
If you would like to learn more about our research, please feel free to contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk
Isabell
RCUK Policy Internships Scheme
PhD students! An exciting internship opportunity has come up. RCUK Policy are looking for PhD students, funded by the UK Research Councils, to work for three months in one of a selected group of highly influential organisations relevant to UK policy. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to work on one or more policy topics of interest. This will give you the chance to participate in a policy inquiry, organise a policy event and produce at least one briefing paper.
The internship is open to all Research Council-funded students. All applicants must be funded until 31 December 2017, to be eligible for the scheme.
Interested? All applications must be submitted by 4pm on Tuesday 1 September 2016. You’ll be notified by the end of September 2016 on the success of your application. If you’re successful, then you’ll be interviewed sometime in October or November.
Click here to find out more information and submit your application.
A great opportunity from the collaboration of Bournemouth University and Nuffield Foundation
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The Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) has been hosting four Nuffield Foundation-funded college students this summer as part of Nuffield’s Research Placement programme. Two of the students (Jamie Singleton and Freddie Corrie-Deane) are working under the guidance of FHSS PhD student Francesco Ferraro, who is supervised by Professors Alison McConnell, Tom Wainwright and Dr James Gavin.
Jamie and Freddie joined us on the 25th of July and they are already familiar with many research aspects, such as: writing a review, dealing with ethical issues, using complex devices and tackling statistical issues.
Francesco has found the experience of working with the students rewarding from many perspectives: “I do trust their questioning and their will to learn and understand more, as it will help the project adding new questions. Conducting research is not simply a duty to search for results; producing research involves the ability to share it, by allowing others to join, bringing their own curiosity and surprise”.
A quote from Richard Feynman sums up the project so far “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”
Here are a few thoughts from those involved in Freddie and Jamie’s Nuffield placements:
“Joining a research study, I knew I was in for a hefty chunk of reading, and with a pessimistic outlook I thought it would all be dry and bland, and that it would be the source of countless days of boredom. Thankfully I was wrong, and while I did have to spend an obligatory day or two reading background information, studies and manuals; the rest of this placement has been involved with the workings of brand-new machinery in the Orthopaedic Research Institute and going out into the local community to talk with people, both of which have been challenging and engaging in all of the right ways to make this experience an enjoyable one.
Our engagement in the community started very early into the placement, on the second day in fact, when we tagged along with Francesco (Our PhD Student overseer/mentor) to an area of sheltered housing to help him give a talk on his study, it was some really good hands on experience (it didn’t hurt that we were offered a biscuit or two). Following this line of talking to people, Jamie and I have spent the last couple of days walking around the gardens by the seaside talking to people and filling out surveys.
We have also spent a day or two engrossed in the outstanding labs in the Orthopaedic Research Institute, equipped with an amazing range of equipment from a pair of surgery VR simulators that bring in experts and surgeons from all over Europe, to the intricate and ever useful Primus Machine which has more potential and customisable positions than there are hours in the day and so understandably has just as many uses.”
- Freddie
“During the past two weeks at Bournemouth University, we have had lots of hands on experience and witnessed the fun sides of research and also, the not-quite side. The latter, quite funnily enough, involved vast amounts of background reading and studying of protocols. The more enjoyable hands on experience however, consisted of being introduced to and working in the Orthopaedic Research Institute Labs testing out protocols. Much to our disappointment… we had to use numerous fun and expensive pieces of equipment, it was at this point we knew this was the right place to be.
Amongst playing around with expensive machinery such as the PrimusRS and the Virtual Reality machines, we got to do some real work. This work was tough yet enriching and consisted of explaining what the research was about and why it is essential to a sheltered community, and of course when asked, accepting the offer for tea and biscuits. Visiting the shelter did give me an insight into the recruitment process for research projects, and I was quite surprised of how laid back it was.
Next, this time for real we did have work to do such as reading protocols, resources, and informative documents needed to produce our review which was not the most exciting experience however, it was made up for by the interesting walks we went on, through the Lower Gardens, in order to gather vital information that we needed for our project analysis of the PASE questionnaire.”
- Jamie
“I was really excited to visit our Nuffield students who are working with Francesco Ferraro at Bournemouth University. I was particularly keen to see how they have been integrated into the team working on a real life application. I was surprised by the highly technical, world class, equipment available to the team. I was also surprised to see how health care is being ‘gamefied’ with the balance app and the ‘Grail’. Thank you for having us.”
- Rachel Delourme (STEM Advisor & Sustainability Co-ordinator at Cornwall Council) and Shayan Bahadori (from Nuffield Foundation).
“Freddie and Jamie have been a huge asset to Francesco’s work over the past couple of weeks. They have worked together as a team to solve problems and test solutions, and I can see how all three of them have benefitted from the experience. I’d recommend hosting Nuffield placement students to anyone; they’ve been a pleasure to have around and they’ve both made valuable contributions to our work.”
- Alison McConnell
Final 3 Minute presentation (3MP) event for the 2015/16 academic year
Dear all,
3MP is back for the final time for this academic year. This event challenges postgraduate researchers to talk about their research in 3 minutes and is designed to expose the audience to a variety of ideas from different disciplines in a bitesize way. There will be plenty opportunities to meet like-minded individuals and to create new connections among staff and colleagues across the University.
Just to give you a small sample of what to expect we have talks about:
- Midwifery
- Diabetes & lifestyle
- Hacking & Gaming Technology
- Corporate governance
- Nature Conservation
- and much more!!
The event will commence on Thursday 19th May from 18:00 on Talbot Campus.
To attend – book your 3MP ticket here
We hope to see you there!
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Congratulations to Dr Jennifer Roddis
RKEO were proud to watch Dr Jennifer Roddis, Research Facilitator, RKEO, graduate yesterday as Doctor of Philosophy. Jenny has worked incredibly hard to achieve her PhD whilst working full-time at the same time. Jenny’s PhD explored perspectives and understanding of living with a long-term condition, specifically asthma or thrombophilia, from the point of view of affected individuals. She identified some interesting findings from the study, including identifying some of the reasons that individuals stop taking their medication and how they learn about their condition.
Well done Jenny!
More Newton Fund opportunities announced
In addition to the Newton Fund opportunities previously announced, the following new calls have been added, with their closing dates:
INDIA- Cultural Heritage and Rapid Urbanisation in India 22/09/15 (4pm GMT)
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) are pleased to announce a joint call for Research Networking projects addressing the theme of ‘Cultural Heritage and Rapid Urbanisation in India’.
PHILIPPINES- Newton PhD Placements Programme 22/09/15 (4pm GMT)
On behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of the UK Government (BIS), the British Council, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are pleased to offer the Newton PhD Programmes. The aim of the Newton PhD Programmes is to facilitate the capacity building of individuals, and the building of sustainable, long-lasting links between the UK and the Philippines through the DOST-Newton PhD Scholarships and the Newton PhD Placements with CHED.
CHINA- PhD Placements and Supervisor Mobility Grants China-UK 10/10/15 (11:59 pm GMT)
Grants to sponsor PhD students and their supervisors from the UK and China to spend a period of study of between three and 12 months (for PhD students) and up to three months (for supervisors) at higher education institutions in China or the UK. Placements must start between January and December 2016
If you wish to apply for any of these, please contact Emily Cieciura, Research Facilitator – EU & International, as soon as possible.