NHM Student Conference Best Talk Award sponsored by Pensoft

At the end of June, the annual Natural History Museum (NHM London) Student Conference took place in London. Students and staff gathered in the museum’s Flett Theatre to enjoy a round of presentations, keynote talks, tours of the museum’s collections, and workshops. 

Participants were impressed by the sixteen student talks delivered by NHM students covering a variety of topics - from microbial communities on glaciers to the evolutionary and palaeobiogeographic origin of the dinosaurs.

Scholarly publisher Pensoft was happy to partner with the conference organizers and sponsor the Best Talk Award, gifting a voucher for a free publication in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal to the winner. 

With a talk on “The drivers and impacts of hydrological changes across the East African Rift System”, Aidan Byrne, a PhD candidate at the NHM and King’s College London, received the judges’ vote for first place. He told us more about his research:

“My PhD research investigates the drivers of water resource changes in lakes across East Africa and their impacts on biodiversity, particularly water birds and fisheries. I use satellite remote sensing, biodiversity data and modelling to explore the relationships between freshwater and soda lake ecosystems, wildlife and environmental pressures over large spatial and temporal scales.”

Finally, Aidan also shared some impressions from the event:

“It was an amazing experience to share my research with colleagues at the NHM student conference in such a relaxed and friendly setting. I would like to thank Pensoft Publishers for their generous prize contribution and I hope to share some of my research through the Biodiversity Data Journal soon!”

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The NHM Student Conference is yet another wonderful proof of the bright future of research that young and determined scientists are building together. We look forward to all of their exciting discoveries to come.

Make sure to follow Aidan, the NHM Students association and the NHM Museum on Twitter. 

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Photo caption: Aidan Byrne, a PhD candidate at the Natural History Museum of London and King’s College London received not one, but two awards: Best Talk and Photography. Photo by NHM Students.