The Faculty of Natural Sciences (FoNS) Research Showcase is an annual event that brings our community together.

This year’s virtual FoNS Showcase saw Imperial staff and students come together over two afternoons (Day One and Day Two) to hear talks by researchers from across the five Natural Sciences departments. It was a great opportunity to celebrate the excellent work happening across the Faculty, from both academic staff and our PhD students.

PhD competition: winners announced

Every year our departments select some of their PhD students to present at the Showcase. Professor Richard Craster, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, emphasised why it's an important event in the Faculty calendar:

"The annual Showcase gives our PhD students an opportunity to share their research in a context outside of their groups and departments, which means they gain valuable experience in communicating their science to a broader audience. The PhD talks are always a real highlight, and this year – as in previous years – the talks were incredibly impressive."

He continued: "I'd like to send special thanks to the student contributors for taking the time to give us insights into their work, to congratulate them all for being selected and to commend them on the excellent science presented."

As part of the event our students take part in a series of competitions, and we are delighted to announce that the results of the FoNS Research Showcase 2021 are as follows:

Best talk (£500 award)

Connor Roberts (Department of Mathematics): Active matter thermodynamics: Powering an E. coli engine with help from field theory

Runner-up talk (£400 award)

Irene and Krista are sharing the award of £400 for the runner-up presentation as the judges felt their talks were so good that they both deserved a prize!

Irene Bechis (Department of Chemistry): Computational modelling of amorphous microporous materials

Krista Grimes (Department of Life Sciences): Connections between immunity and metabolism- what can we learn from the fruit fly?

Best poster (£300 award)

Avni Chotai (Department of Mathematics): Injecting instability into fluids

Runner-up poster (£200 award)

Anna Strampelli (Department of Life Sciences): A Male-Drive Female-Sterile (MDFS) system in Anopheles gambiae targeting doublesex

Best video (£300 award)

Layla Malouf (Department of Chemistry): Using DNA nanotechnology to design synthetic cells

Runner-up video (£200 award)

Henry Alston (Department of Mathematics): Microphase separation in scalar active matter

The people's choice prize (£200 award)

This year the College community was also encouraged to vote for their favourite video as part of the people's choice prize.123 staff and students across Imperial submitted their votes and the winner is...

Kamilla Rekvenyi (Department of Mathematics): The orbital diameter of groups

Thanks to all

Professor Craster was also keen to thank the judges who joined us for the event, and all those who were involved in making it happen:

"Our panel took the time to award the best PhD talks on the day, plus they awarded the best student posters and videos submitted as part of the online Showcase," he said. "Thanks again to all of our speakers, judges, organisers and the audience – your efforts made the event a great success."