Category: Life at Brighton

Bhavik in the lab wearing a white lab coat with colours writing and drawing

University of Brighton scientist wins prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Prize

Professor Bhavik Patel has won the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Analytical Science mid-career Prize in recognition of brilliance in research and innovation.

Based at the University of Brighton’s School of Applied Sciences, the Professor of Clinical and Bioanalytical Chemistry has been named winner of the prize for the development of innovative electrochemical sensors for advancing the understanding of biological signalling processes. This year’s winners join a prestigious list of past winners in the RSC’s prize portfolio, 60 of whom have gone on to win Nobel Prizes for their work, including 2022 Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi and 2019 Nobel laureate John B Goodenough.

After receiving the prize, Professor Patel said: “This prize is real recognition for me and my group on our research approach to create sensors which are fit-for-purpose and provide impactful knowledge about biological systems.”

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Group of students standing in front of a presentation about Sickle Cell Disease

Donor Research – co-creating student-led donation awareness education

The University of Brighton Donor Research Team is comprised of student champions and academics from the School of Sport and Health Sciences and the School of Applied Sciences, and wider collaborators from other universities, organisations, charities and the NHS.

It has been a busy year for the team with another round of funding secured from NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) to continue our work in educating the student population on organ and blood donation to address the health inequalities in ethnic communities. Read about the new funding secured by the University of Brighton’s Donor Research team.

To further develop our work the team invited Stephanie George from Red Cells R us to share her experience of having Sickle Cell Anaemia at the Year 3 Healthcare Student Interprofessional Conference in April. Swetha Kalaimani, a University of Brighton Donor Research Student Champion, interviewed Stephanie. Read about Stephanie and her experiences.

Rebecca Craig and Charlotte Humphris, academics in the School of Sport and Health Sciences, have also been working with Stephanie to transform the BSc nursing curriculum to be inclusive of Sickle Cell Anaemia and the service users experience. Learn more about this important work.

Learn more about the Donor Research Team’s work and how you can collaborate as a student, colleague or researcher:

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Close up of young people in white lab coats using a pipette and test tube

A taste of student life at our Applied Science and Engineering residential summer school

Our on campus residential summer school is open for applications from year 12 students who are thinking about applying to science and engineering courses at university. Apply now.

The summer is school is a real opportunity to try out what it’s like to study at university, learn and use the facilities on our Moulsecoomb campus and stay on site in student halls.

During the day participants take part in a programme of science and engineering taster lectures and practical sessions run by academics and student ambassadors which could include sessions such as blood typing or a session on fungi in the labs. There are also sessions about applying to university, a student life Q&A, a session from the library team and a talk from Brighton Students Union.

In the evenings there are social activities which could be a trip to the beach, a BBQ or bowling before heading back to the halls of residence. Participants share a student flat in our Moulsecoomb halls, with their own bedroom in a flat with 6-8 students and shared living room/kitchen.

Group of young people sitting on the floor in a circle working
Group of young people using VR headsets
Young people outside Herstmonceaux observatory
Two scientists in white lab coats hidden by smoke doing an experiment

In the evenings there are social activities which could be a trip to the beach, a BBQ or bowling before heading back to the halls of residence. Summer school participants share a student flat in our halls, with their own bedroom in a flat with 6-8 students and shared living room/kitchen.

By the end of the week everyone will have tried out lots different science and engineering sessions, made new friends and have a much idea of what it’s like to move to university!

Book your place

Applications are open until 31 May. We would love to see you there!

More about University of Brighton summer schools

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Group of students on the seafront at Bexhill on Sea

A study visit to Bexhill’s urban greenspaces

Geography and environmental sciences students taking the specialist urban geography module Cities & Social Change recently travelled to Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex to learn about coastal towns in transition.

The group visited key sites of green infrastructure around the town which had received substantial regeneration monies over the last decade. And they were joined by local experts Adrian Gaylon, sports development officer, and Frank Rallings, former head of planning, at Rother District Council.

Students observed the innovative seafront planting scheme on Bexhill’s West Promenade. Beautiful herbaceous perennials provide year-round colour and structure that thrives with minimal maintenance in an aggressive coastal micro-climate.

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Student smiling to camera in the lab and holding bowl with yellow contents

A day in the life of a pharmacy student

Hi I’m Eva and I’m in my third year of my pharmacy degree. A typical day in the life of a pharmacy student varies depending on what day of the week it is! The Pharmacy MPharm degree is mostly taught using a mixture of lectures, labs and workshops. Lectures are what most people think of when they imagine uni – lots of people sitting in a lecture theatre taking notes while the professor talks. Labs are where we do scientific experiments, and workshops are where we get to practice our clinical skills.

Sometimes we’ll have placements too, where we spend a few days in a pharmacy, shadowing the workload of a pharmacist. Normally, we’ll either have one three-hour lab, one three-hour workshop, or two to six hours of lectures in a day; and we usually only have three or four days a week at uni, so I tend to work or study on my days off.

Today I had a lab, so I woke up early and made sure I got to Huxley Building on Moulsecoomb campus ten minutes before 9am – if you miss the safety briefing, you won’t be let in! I also made sure I had my lab coat and goggles with me, which should be worn at all times in the lab. I’m in the third year, so this lab was one of a series of four sessions as part of a group project where we make a product from scratch.

My group’s product was curcumin sunscreen, so we started by researching what formulations would be best for a sunscreen. We decided on a cream, as we thought a lotion wouldn’t provide enough coverage, and ointment would be too greasy. We had to think back to the labs we had in first year and remember the ingredients and method for making cream – good thing I kept all my notes!

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Two young people in a lab in white lab coats using a microscope

Celebrating ten years of Saturday clubs at Brighton

This year we are celebrating year ten years of the University of Brighton Saturday clubs delivered by the outreach team. Hundreds of secondary school students in years 9-11 have benefited from attending clubs in subjects as diverse as photography, science, architecture, mechanical engineering, printmaking and fashion.

The Saturday clubs are targeted at groups which are under-represented at universities, for example young people who live in low participation postcodes, children in care, free school meals and other widening participation criteria. This work supports our Access and Participation Plan (APP) target to reduce the gap in participation in HE from students in underrepresented groups by 2024/25.

Students come onto campus every week to work with academics and gain hands on experience using our industry standard facilities, as well as learning from and chatting to student ambassador’s about subject areas they are interested in and finding out more about what it’s like to be a student.

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City Nature Challenge 2023 advert

City Nature Challenge 2023

Attention all budding naturalists! Get involved with the City Nature Challenge, an international campaign to discover and record as much wildlife as possible over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. Just download and use the iNaturalist app.

What is the City Nature Challenge?

The City Nature Challenge is an exciting global citizen science event to discover and record as much wildlife as possible, using the free iNaturalist app, whilst helping people connect with the nature on their doorstep. Locally, City Nature Challenge is organised by University of Brighton, University of Sussex, The Living Coast and the South Downs National Park. The UK event is co-ordinated by The Natural History Consortium, and the global event is co-ordinated by the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles and California Academy of Sciences.

This year, the Brighton & Eastern Downs region will be taking part in the global City Nature Challenge alongside over 450 city regions worldwide, including 22 across the UK.

Anyone can take part between 28 April and 1 May – young and old, experienced naturalists and curious beginners.

Where and how to get involved

Continue reading “City Nature Challenge 2023” →

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Title Belong at Brighton with images of students on campus in the background

Get ready for uni – live event 28 April

Our 2023 online get ready events will help you prepare for university and to meet other students that’ll also be joining this year.

Join us for our get ready for your course event to hear about how you can prepare for your subject, and ask any questions, to get your studies off to the best start. For students studying: biological sciences, biomedical science, geography and environment, or pharmacy.

Friday 28 April 2023 at 2-3pm

Click here for details on how to join the session

In this live one-hour MS Teams session one of our senior lecturers will start by delivering a presentation, followed by time for you to answer any questions you might have. The session will highlight what you can expect from studying here, how we will support you to build your skills, what kinds of learning you can expect to benefit from, what a typical week looks like, and how we will support you.

Find out more about all of our upcoming events here

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Welcoming our first cohort of Global Fellows

The Global Fellowship Scheme provides prestigious awards to enable world-leading researchers and scholars from around the globe to spend between one and three months at the University of Brighton. During this time, they will be able to engage in productive research and build lasting collaborations.

Global Fellows will work in partnerships with University of Brighton colleagues on a joint grant application, produce a co-authored output or co-produced artefact, and share research skills and experience with researchers within our Centres of Research and Knowledge Exchange Excellence and postgraduate students.

We are looking forward to welcoming Professor Alexies Dagnino, University of Valparaiso, Chile in June, who will be collaborating with Dr Melanie Flint.

Continue reading “Welcoming our first cohort of Global Fellows” →

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Ecology and Conservation second-year fieldwork

Applied Ecology and Conservation Field Course module

As part of the second year Applied Ecology and Conservation Field Course module, we visited a range of local wildlife sites, such as the British Wildlife Centre, Waterhall, Knepp Estate, Rye Nature Reserve, Blue Reef Hastings and the Hastings Fisherman’s Protection Society. The module very well attended and the students continued to build a diverse skill set. Along the way there were some interesting talks on ecological processes as well as surveys and management experiences. Opportunities for further involvement in the form of volunteering or final year projects have also arisen and these offer excellent opportunities for employment. One of the highlights was the Knepp bird ringing day were we had the opportunity to get close to some amazing birds thanks to Penny, Josie and Dave.

Yellowhammer bird
Yellowhammer (photo: Zoe Lawson)
A bullfinch sitting on a hand
Bullfinch (photo: Zoe Lawson)
Continue reading “Ecology and Conservation second-year fieldwork” →

Laura RubyLeave a comment