STEM for BRITAIN is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition which has been held in Parliament each year since 1997.
Organised by the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee, the competition aims to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken by early career researchers in UK universities.
This was the fifth year that the Society has been actively involved in the event. In addition to providing judges for the biological sciences category, the Society has the pleasure of awarding its own Nutrition Prize.
The 2022 event marked the first year that the Society sponsored the Chemistry Prizes when the Royal Society of Chemistry announced they could not financially support them this year.
Taking place in person on Monday 7 March at Portcullis House, Westminster, the competition was well attended by Sponsors, Council Members and winners of the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Special Prizes.
The morning saw early career researchers from Physics, Chemistry and Mathematical backgrounds present their research as posters. The Nutrition Society’s President, Professor Julie Lovegrove spoke of Nutrition Science as a broad discipline, encompassing diverse sciences that include food science, physiology, psychology, medicine, biochemistry, and chemistry, which impacts us all each day of our lives.
The 2022 winners of the Chemistry Category were as follows:
• The BRONZE award was given to John Hudson, Swansea University, for his research entitled: UNLOCKING THE MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF RADICALS FOR SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES
View poster video presentation
• Abigail Collins, University of Cambridge, took home the SILVER Award for her research entitled: TUNING THE SOLAR SPECTRUM: GREEN-TO-BLUE LIGHT UPCONVERSION
View poster video presentation
• The GOLD award was given to Katherine Macfarlane, University of Strathclyde for her research entitled: EXPLOITING DNA-ENCODED LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DISCOVERY OF NOVEL ANTIBODY RECRUITING MOLECULES AGAINST LOX-1
View poster video presentation
The Biological and Biomedical Sciences Category took place in the afternoon. In her address to the event Professor Julie Lovegrove said “It is interesting to think that nutrition will affect every one of us here today throughout this and every day, having a profound impact on our health and well-being.”
The 2022 winners of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Category were as follows:
• The BRONZE award was given to Claire Laxton, University of Nottingham, for her research entitled: USING AN ARTIFICIAL SIMULATED WOUND INFECTION MODEL TO STUDY PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA NUTRIENT SCAVANGING BY AaaA
View poster and video presentation
• Hamish Symington, University of Cambridge, took home the SILVER Award for his research into IMPROVING FLOWERS TO HELP FEED THE WORLD
View poster and video presentation
• The GOLD Award was given to Miquel Serna-Pascual, Kings College London for her research into: HIDDEN DISEASE SIGNS IN THE PATTERN OF BREATHING
View poster video presentation
• Orla Woodward, University of Cambridge took home the Nutrition Society Prize for her research entitled: CHARACTERISATION OF AN APPETITE-MODULATING NEURONAL POPULATION IN THE MOUSE BRAIN
To follow the event:
Search @STEM4Brit on Twitter to view the proceedings and visit the website to view more photos and poster presentations from the event.
Applications for the 2023 competition will re-open in September. Applicants are invited to submit research from across five subject categories: Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Physics, Engineering, Mathematical Sciences and Chemistry.
Prizes are awarded for the posters presented in each discipline which best communicated high level science to a lay audience.