Chaired by Steve Hull (Crystallography Group Leader, ISIS) and Joe Hriljac (Crystallography Science Group Leader, Diamond Light Source), the Crystallography Groups at Diamond and ISIS held a student meeting to give their early career stage researchers a chance to present their work.
The day, held at Diamond, saw presentations from students on their work in research areas including toxic gas storage, pharmaceuticals, minerals and experiments under high pressures. The students ranged from undergraduates on their placement year to PhD students in their final year of study, and many in between.
The ISIS sandwich students who went along found it extremely valuable. Ben, a placement student on the HRPD instrument at ISIS said: “The whole day was thoroughly enjoyable! Being able to listen to a wide range of interesting talks from the ISIS/Diamond PhD students working in crystallography, as well as having the opportunity to present myself, will be a memorable experience which I'm sure will definitely help me in my future career."
Placement student Isobel added: “The day was a great opportunity to network with researchers in a similar field and learn about their work; as an engineer, it was useful to see the kind of scientific analysis that the instrument upgrade I'm designing would help achieve. It was also a valuable chance to explain my work to others and practice my presentation and scientific explanation skills."
As well as those presenting, there were other student and instrument scientists from both ISIS and Diamond attending, who asked useful questions after the talks, and contributed to the lively coffee and lunch breaks.
As ISIS-funded PhD studentships include an element of facility development, it was especially interesting to see the technologies developed that they would be leaving behind to the ISIS user community, including sample set-ups on both Polaris and PEARL.
Steve Hull commented: “Joe and I wanted to provide an informal opportunity for students within the Diamond and ISIS Crystallography Groups to meet up and present their research projects - in some cases for the first time. We were very impressed by the quality of all the presentations and delighted that so many students and staff came along. I am sure that we will hold a similar event in the future."
PhD studentships at ISIS are currently open for applications. For more information, and to apply, visit our studentship page.
