News
Achievements celebrated at Annual SLS Summer School Symposium
The School of Life Sciences held its annual Vacation Scholarship Symposium, where students showcased work from 8-week lab placements. These gave hands-on experience in academic research and valuable skills for their future careers.
Published on 28 July 2025
Poster prize winners (from left): Hau Laynna Lay, Yana Korenchuk, Connor Stewart and Interim Dean Dr Paul Davies
The School of Life Sciences annual Vacation Scholarship Symposium took place earlier this month. It provides an opportunity for the undergraduate students who had summer lab placements to showcase their learning and celebrate their achievements.
Undergraduate students participated in a competitively awarded full-time placement over 8 weeks in labs across the Schools of Life Sciences and the James Hutton Institute. This allowed them to gain an insight into working in an academic laboratory setting and learn skills that they can take forward into their future working lives.
At the Symposium, the students presented posters highlighting their research projects and findings. First place was awarded to Yana Korenchuk (who was in Dario Alessi’s lab and supervised by Pawel Lis). The runners up were Connor Stewart (who was in Sarah Coulthurst’s lab) and Hau Laynna Lay (who was in Geoff Barton’s lab).
Thanks go to the key people involved in the programme. They are Paul Davies, Academic Lead; Sheriar Hormuzdi, Programme Lead; and Constance Alabert who provide assistance with short listing and interviewing. Admin support provided by Zoe Hirons, Fionna Shea, and Linda Cunningham. Finally, thanks to the poster judges.
The Summer School is supported with funding from the Wellcome Biomedical Vacation Scholarship Programme (BMVS), MRCPPU, BARIToNE, Lister, and a few independently funded placements.