I’m Leah Clare, a student in Planetary Physics. My decision to take part in the recent Celebration of Science came about despite only being 6 months into my PhD. My supervisor encouraged me to submit a poster due to the exciting research I was already working on. The opportunity to interact with PhD research students outside of my department and practice my presentation skills for future conferences was really interesting to me. I recently took part in a poster workshop run by the faculty and it gave me the skills to be prepared to give it a go.

Science engagement is something I am interested in as a Physics Student Ambassador. This role includes engaging with prospective students and their guardians in the form of answering questions about my research and undergraduate experiences. I recently helped out at an event called Campus in the City, where the general public come and find out about some of the research that takes place across the University and beyond. I was part of an exhibit based on research happening in the Space and Planetary Physics Research Group. This experience was very enriching and enjoyable, especially meeting so many different kinds of visitors.

While it is great to interact with those outside the University, getting the chance to do that with other research students and see how they present their research is of particular interest to me as a researcher. I enjoyed attending a variety of talks as part of the Celebration of Science from different areas within the Faculty of Science and Technology. There were a large variety of projects hoping to answer various research questions and it was refreshing to see what was happening outside of my particular research field. The only downside is that I could not speak to everyone else about their poster as I was so busy talking about mine! However, every poster looked intriguing, with many topics covered within science and technology.

I definitely plan to be part of the poster session next year and encourage everyone to think about doing the same. It is a really great opportunity for you to showcase your work whilst feeling like you are a part of a wide-ranging research community. I had some great conversations about my work, including questions around my methods and the theory. There are lots of benefits to doing this kind of activity as a PhD student such as interacting with researchers inside and outside of your research field. You will also build on poster and presentation skills, and there is the potential to build your research network. I was really excited as one of the keynote speakers also happens to be a part of the same field of research. The talk was one of my highlights!

Winning the poster competition runner-up was such a great feeling. It was exciting to have my efforts and hard work recognised, but the experience was rewarding in itself. I enjoyed Celebration of Science and offer my congratulations to the runners up and everyone that took part in the PhD poster experience.

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