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Abeer Aamir

Brighton pharmacy student wins prestigious national award

Thanks to her exceptional work in advancing equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at the University of Brighton, Pharmacy MPharm student Abeer Aamir has won this year’s David Kearney Award from the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA).

Abeer, who has just finished her third year, described herself as “incredibly grateful and humbled” to receive the prestigious national award, which recognises outstanding contribution to pharmacy over the past 12 months. 

The nomination calls Abeer’s commitment to promoting inclusivity and diversity within the pharmacy profession “a testament to her dedication to advancing the field, keeping patients safe, and making it more equitable and accessible for all individuals”.

“As a first-generation immigrant and a pharmacy student, I’ve seen both sides of the coin,” Abeer said. “I’ve seen the ways in which medical racism penetrates the healthcare profession, and it really does disproportionately affect people of colour and women. So, using all that lived experience, I really hope to shine a light on unconscious bias and unconscious medical racism, so that the curriculum is a lot more reflective of the population that our graduates are serving.”

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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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People taking part in water sampling training on the quay at Chichester Harbour

Research into marine littering from abandoned fibreglass boats

Steady progress is being made on a collaborative community project steered by the University of Brighton. The research – titled Protecting inland coastal waters through innovative citizen science: participatory action-research on end-of-life fibreglass boats – is evidencing end of life and abandoned boats in and around the Chichester Harbour environs.  Led by aquatic ecotoxicologist Dr Corina Ciocan and community water resources practitioner Dr Mary Gearey the aim of the research is to document marine littering from fibreglass boats in poor repair.

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Laura RubyLeave a comment
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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Field trip to Sicily 2023 – days one and two

Our level 5 Geography BSc(Hons) and Environmental Sciences BSc(Hons) students visited Sicily on a week-long field trip. Environmental Sciences BSc(Hons) student and (we think) brilliant photographer, Lizzie Pallett, documented the trip.

Day one – Lava fields of Mount Etna

Day one of the Level 5 field trip to Sicily! First stop: the lava fields of Mt Etna.

Students in the distance with snow covered peak of Mount Etna in the background
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Laura RubyLeave a comment
Back of a group of students on mules in the mountains in Morocco

Fieldweek 2023: Morocco

Our second year Geography BA students spent a busy week in Morocco, exploring urban and rural landscapes as part of their Research and Field Skills core module.

Starting off in Marrakech, students spent the first day undertaking a transect walk that took them on a slice directly through the city. Starting in the ‘New Town’ of colonial Gueliz, students began to investigate post-colonial urbanism, development strategies, water stress and plans for a sustainable Green Morocco as they made their way to the ‘Old City’ of the medina. Here they examined tourist practices in the souks and at the famous Jemaa el Fnaa. In the evening they returned to the famous square to see how this busy nightlife space is created.

The group were joined by local Amazigh/Berber guide Saeed on day three, learning about water and land use in the outskirts of Marrakech from him. Students got a first-hand view of the irrigation techniques used in a rapidly-developing yet water-scarce country, and heard about the politics of who gets access to water, and why.

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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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