Success for two NRPDTP students at the UEA Engagement Awards

UEA holds its Engagement Awards annually (https://www.uea.ac.uk/community-university-engagement/awards), selecting staff and student winners who have effectively communicated UEA/NRP research with the public. Earlier this year, two DTP students were nominated for a UEA Engagement Award and were recognised for their engagement activities.

Shannon Woodhouse, a DTP student based at the John Innes Centre,  has always enjoyed participating in outreach activities. As the first in her family to go to university, Shannon knows what an impact engagement in schools can have on students. Shannon carried out her PIPs placement with the SAW Trust and has continued outreach work with them. Additionally, last year Shannon was the Outreach and Communications Officer for the JIC Student Committee, a role which allowed her to encourage others to participate in outreach events and she also ran a blog series called PhD Profile on the JIC Student Blog Page (https://johninnessvc.wordpress.com/category/phd-profile/), which was aimed at encouraging prospective PhD students by giving an insight into life as a PhD Student from a first-hand perspective. “I regularly lead activities for the UEA Outreach Team in schools, a role I really enjoy. This is wonderful and will only encourage me to continue with my outreach work”m reflects Shannon.

Hans Pfalzgraf, a DTP student based at the University of East Anglia, won the Cambridge regional finals of FameLab. Hans went on to win second place in the national finals at the Science Museum, London. Hans has participated in each Norwich Science Festival since 2017 where he has designed and led an activity stand introducing the topic of enzyme engineering with toy bricks, told stories about motor proteins in the body and explained organic chemistry with the colour of molecules. Hans also won joint first place in the Norwich Science Festival 2019 Offal Waffle event with his proposition that the ear was the most fascinating organ.