Bursaries reports

 

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Lydia McQuoid (Queen's university Belfast)

ARR 2025 | June 9^th - 11^th 2025 | Keswick

I was delighted to attend the 2025 ARR meeting in Keswick, and to receive the first-place award for best early career researcher oral presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed the breadth of topics covered across the sessions – from space and nuclear physics to molecular radiation biology and clinical practice. Another highlight for me was the visit and tour around the Dalton Cumbrian Facility to see up close the extensive facilities and potential avenues of research available there. Overall, it was a fantastic few days of meeting and connecting with other researchers, with many interesting conversations that will hopefully lead to future collaborations.

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Adrija Bhowmick (University of Kent)

ARR 2025 | June 9^th - 11^th 2025 | Keswick

Attending the ARR 2025 Annual Meeting was a truly formative experience. Hosted in the stunning Lake District at the Lodore Falls Hotel, the conference brought together an inspiring cross-section of the UK’s radiation research community.

As a researcher preparing to begin my PhD, it was both a privilege and a major milestone to present both a poster and an oral talk. I was especially honoured to receive third place for oral presentation—a meaningful recognition as the youngest participant at the meeting.

The conference showcased a wide spectrum of topics, from radiobiology and oncology to radiochemistry, radiation protection, and even space science. Engaging with such a diverse group of scientists—especially early-career researchers—sparked a number of new ideas and left me feeling energised about my next steps in research.

A particular highlight was the visit to the Dalton Cumbrian Facility, where I gained valuable insight into the infrastructure that supports experimental radiation work in the UK.

I’d like to thank Professor Nigel Mason and Dr. Felipe Fantuzzi for their support and mentorship throughout this experience, as well as my colleagues in the KAIROS team (Kent Astrochemistry, Irradiation, Origins and Space (KAIROS) - Research at Kent [research.kent.ac.uk]). The ARR meeting was not just an academic opportunity, but a personal milestone—and one that I hope to build on as I begin my PhD journey.

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Lena Nenoff (OncoRay)

Visit to The University of Manchester, hosted by Eliana Vasquez Osorio

2^nd - 15^th June 2024 | Manchester

I am very grateful for the collaboration bursary provided by the ARR. This grant enabled me to enhance my research collaboration on deformable image registration uncertainties with Dr. Eliana Vaszquez-Osorio from the University of Manchester. During a two-week visit to Manchester, we worked together on developing an open-access code for easy-to-use deformable image registration uncertainty quantification. This resource will ease the comparison of these uncertainties across institutions, imaging modalities, time intervals between images, and anatomical areas, without the need to exchange data. The visit was essential for the progress of the code development, particularly in extending its applications to various data formats and use cases.

Furthermore, the collaboration bursary afforded me the opportunity to visit and learn from one of the leading cancer centers in the UK and the world. I had the chance to meet new colleagues, which I hope will lead to more collaborations and an exchange between our research centers in the near future. For both Eliana and me, this bursary is an important step forward in our scientific careers.

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Miki Yoneyama (ICR)

ImmunoRad conference (7th edition)  | 27^th-29^th September 2023 | Paris

I’m very grateful to the ARR for this travel bursary, which gave me the opportunity to present some of my PhD work on the characterisation of radiation-induced immune changes in breast cancer at the 7th edition of ImmunoRad in Paris. I have been developing this work at Dr Navita Somaiah's group at ICR.

The ImmunoRad conference focuses specifically on radiotherapy and immunotherapy combinations, so the poster session allowed me to discuss my research with leading experts in this field, as well as with other early-career researchers working on similar questions.

All the talks were also highly relevant for my project – overall I felt that the conference gave me a lot of new ideas for things I want to explore with the time I have left in my PhD! 

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