Cafe Research

Cafe research is an event put on by the graduate school for research students to socialise and informally present their work, there’s also free pizza and wine to help get us in the door! The most recent one was the first I’ve been to and I’ll admit the main reason I went was because I knew a couple of the people presenting, they did a great job by the way, and I’m really glad I went. I heard 4 interesting talks, got to know a few new people (and caught up with some I already know) and got some free pizza and wine to top it off.

The format goes – you have 5 slides to present your work to a non-specialised audience (research students from all colleges are invited to attend). It’s not designed for you to present your entire catalogue of work to date, but to give an overview of one interesting element. The session I attended had 4 speakers, they each spoke for about 10mins and then the floor was opened up to questions (all the very nice kind, not the petrifying kind you get from academics). After everyone had spoken the metaphorical barrier was lifted and we were let loose on the pizza (wine and soft drinks were available from the start).

Somehow I found myself signing up to present at the next Cafe Research (although it did require a little persuasion). It’s scheduled for April, promotional material coming soon, or check out the Cafe Research webpage and come and find out all about the epigenetic regulation of Streptococcus pneumoniae in 5 slides or less while eating free pizza 🙂  .