Eleven of the CRC’s PhD scholarship holders met up on Zoom in late July for their first official Student Quarterly.
The online catch-up was facilitated by Education Director, University of New England’s Professor Brian Sindel and was also attended by the CRC’s Research Coordinator, Dr Maria Veronica Chandra-Hioe.
Each PhD attending gave a three-minute presentation of their research, with several of the students finding points of commonality. Many produced impressive slides to illustrate their work.
It appeared most of those attending found the exchange of presentations engaging, as some enthusiastic discussion ensued. Attendee feedback indicated that the catch-up was interesting, enjoyable and worthwhile; one PhD proclaiming the event “extraordinary”.
Auguring well for a continuing dialogue and camaraderie, email addresses were exchanged.
The CRC’s Research & Commercialisation Director Professor Cordelia Selomulya noted after the fact that preparing and delivering research presentations in this format could prove useful to the PhDs for everything from funding and job applications to contests – often with big prize purses and/or other perks attached – for which ‘three-minute video pitches’ or similar are an entry requirement.
The next CRC PhD catch-up is scheduled for October 2022. A former PhD student will talk about career pathways from research to industry.
Sanitarium’s Head of Research & Development, Dr John Ashton, is expected to drop in. He’ll talk about his work with the iconic Australian health-food brand, about Sanitarium’s collaborations with university scientists under the CRC, and about making the transition from academic research to industry – with time left over for Q&A and general discussion.
Find out more about the Future Food Systems CRC’s PhD program here.
Lead image: The CRC inaugural PhD catch-up attendees.