ISMIB Awards and Away Day 2023
Staff and students from across the Institute of Systems, Molecular Integrative Biology (ISMIB) recently attended The Spine building for the first in-person Institute Away Day since the inception of the Institute.
The event focussed on the Institute’s diverse research and teaching activity and included a series of talks on the Institute’s strategies for education, research and impact, as well as equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing (EDIW).
The event was opened by Professor Sonia Rocha, Executive Dean of the Institute, who provided a review of the past year. This was followed by talks on public engagement, sustainability, health and safety, space and facilities as well as professional services support.
Teaching-related topics included postgraduate teaching, educational research, undergraduate research projects as well as an update on the new Life Sciences curriculum. Eli Saetnan from The Academy was also in attendance, to discuss teaching accreditation and developing teaching practice.
Research-related talks included updates from the departments of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine and Pharmacology and Therapeutics on achievements, challenges and strategy. The topic of cross-Faculty research collaborations was explored, as well as the facilities available in Liverpool Shared Research Facilities (LIV-SRF), their future plans and support available.
Early career researchers also featured with members of the Institute’s Postgraduate and Post Doc societies providing updates on their activities and future plans. The event included a poster session for early career researchers with prizes for the best posters. The Research and Impact departmental leads were unable to select just three winners; therefore, six winners were selected to receive a prize of £500 each to attend a conference or to undertake a research trip to a collaborator’s lab.
Professor Sonia Rocha, Executive Dean of the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, said: “It was great to finally get together for our first full Institute Away Day since COVID-19. The Institute is based in multiple buildings across campus so face to face events are essential to establish the close relationships that are so vital for collaboration. We hope this is the first of many. Our success will be based not just on the work of our academics but how we work together as a cohesive team, from our professional services staff to our students and post docs. Today demonstrated how we do this as an Institute and I’m very proud of how we all work together.”
The day closed with the ISMIB staff awards. These were an opportunity to celebrate staff and students from across the Institute. Over 90 nominations were received across six categories, and winners were selected by the Faculty Director of Operations, Niki Sandman (PS categories), Chair of ISMIB EDIW committee, Mark Morgan as well as members of EDIW committee (research, unsung hero categories).
Award winners
Deans Excellence Award – Research – Alan Cartmell, Ed Emmott, Infection Pharmacology Group, Luning Liu
Deans Excellence Award – Teaching – Carl Larsen, Curriculum Renewal Team, MSc Cancer Biology & Therapy Team, Niall Kenneth
ISMIB PS Technical Excellence – ISMIB Technical Team, Bhav Jagota, SoLS Technical Team
ISMIB PS Administrative Excellence – Carl McCluskey, Jacqueline Cole, ISMIB Management Services Team
PDRA of the year – Claire Wilson, Dominic Byrne, Taiyu Chen
PGR of the year – Anita Hanson, Gaia Bellomo, Nefeli Boni-Kazantzidou
Unsung hero – Caroline Dart, Melanie Oates, Kevin Cham, Andrew Collins
Best Poster Prize – Sarah Barnett, Leonard Daly, Marie Held, Lucy Oldfield, Giusy Russamanno and Mengru Yang.