Season Finale
Karim El Ferkh, PhD student based at the University of Edinburgh
It was two years ago, when I sat down in a restaurant for my final meal after my statistics crash-course at the University of Bristol. It was a Friday, and I was eating a schnitzel in one hand, and texting my wife explaining how delicious that schnitzel was in the other. Being a food enthusiast – something you’ll immediately recognise once you meet me – I knew then that I had to visit Bristol again just to eat there one more time.
Luckily, this year’s Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) was held in that lovely city; Bristol. At the ASM, Centre members (researchers, students and support staff) from across the UK meet together under one roof to discuss their progress in front of a very bright international advisory group. It is always a pleasure to see my long-distant colleagues again, and to put faces to the names of new Centre members.
Day one started with our respected Directors, Professors Aziz Shiekh and Chris Griffiths, updating us on everything new in the centre. Presentations followed, discussing projects from around the centre ranging from those impacting future researchers, to others impacting healthcare policy and public health.
The inspiring oral and poster presentations continued the following day until the meeting was commemorated in distributing prizes to the best presenters; Marissa Mes won the best poster presentation and Luke Daines won the best oral presentation. Prizes were also awarded to researchers in recognition of their excellent Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) collaborative work; Tracy Jackson won first prize and Ann McMurray was awarded second prize.
Something that myself and fellow PhD students Adam Peel and Elsie Horne will take home with us from this meeting is that being even five minutes late has its consequences; day two punished us by having to walk under the pouring rain from the hotel to the venue. We arrived in a mess… well, except for Adam, who arrived spotless – unsurprisingly, as he is always immaculate.
This year’s ASM may be the final annual meeting that I attend as I will be graduating in the next six months, but I can say I made the most out of it as I networked with all of the bright researchers and experts in the field. Here is to hopefully crossing paths with researchers in the Centre again after my graduation…
P.s. No, I did not have a schnitzel on this trip, but the dinner organised by the Centre was more than satisfying.