Doctoral Celebration Evening
On Wednesday 10 June 2026, the Doctoral College welcomed over 180 guests to Komedia for the Doctoral Celebration Evening. This special event brought together students, staff and guests including The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Bath, Councillor Ruth Malloy to celebrate the achievements of our vibrant doctoral community.
The evening featured the final of our annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition along with the presentation of the Doctoral Recognition Awards, the Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Prizes, and the Godfrey and Sue Hall Doctoral Researcher Prize.
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who was able to join us for what turned out to be an evening full of joy and celebration! Here are some of the photos from the evening.
3MT Competition
3MT® celebrates the exciting research conducted by PhD students around the world. Developed by The University of Queensland, the competition cultivates academic, presentation, and research communication skills by challenging students to present their entire thesis - usually around 80,000 words - in just three minutes. Students are allowed to use one PowerPoint slide and no other resources.
Congratulations to Minu Bahrami, Department of Chemical Engineering who was the winner of our Judges' Choice at the 3MT Final. Minu's topic was ‘The Plastics Problem Bloody Evidence: Solving the Mystery of Mechanical Heart Valves’, she will go on to compete in the UK National Final hosted by Vitae.
Congratulations also to Evelyn Hu, Department of Chemical Engineering who was the winner of our Peoples' Choice Award. Evelyn’s presentation was titled, ‘It’s Not Milk: Rethinking Blood in Heart Pumps’
We would also like to recognise the other 3MT finalists who competed on the evening and delivered some fantastic presentations:
Joni Wildman, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering – ‘Breaking the Mould with Fungal Building Materials’
Lucy Maddox, Department of Psychology – ‘A Hard Hat for Emotionally Demanding Jobs’
Matthew Cullen, Department of Chemistry – ‘The Plastics Problem’
Awards
During the evening, we presented [several awards] (/campaigns/awards-and-recognition-schemes-for-those-within-the-doctoral-community/ including the Doctoral Recognition Awards, the Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Prizes and Godfrey and Sue Hall Doctoral Researcher Prize.
Doctoral Recognition Awards
The Doctoral Recognition Awards recognise students and staff who have made contributions to enhancing doctoral experience and fostering a positive research culture within our doctoral community.
Find out who the 84 individuals are who were awarded a Doctoral Recognition Award in 2026.
Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Prizes
The Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Prizes are awarded to supervisors/supervisory teams who have demonstrated exceptional performance in supervision. The University prize was awarded to Dr Hannah Leese, Department of Chemical Engineering
There were also 4 Faculty and School Prizes:
- Faculty of Engineering and Design Winner: Dr Katharine Fraser, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Winner: Prof Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Department of Social and Policy Sciences
- Faculty of Science Winner: Dr Marina De Vos, Department of Computer Science
- School of Management Winner: Prof Dan Davies, School of Management
Godfrey and Sue Hall Doctoral Researcher Prize
The prize is awarded on behalf of Senate by the Godfrey and Sue Hall Doctoral Researcher Prize Committee to a doctoral researcher based on a high standard of achievement. A huge congratulations to 2026 Godfrey and Sue Hall Doctoral Researcher Prize winner Faye Sanders, Department of Psychology, for her research titled "The Health We Build: How Housing and Cities Impact Our Wellbeing".
Doctoral Discoveries Videos
During the evening, we proudly displayed our latest Doctoral Discoveries videos. Now in its second year, the initiative comprises a series of short videos allowing PhD students to showcase the real-world impact of their research.
Browse our updated Doctoral Discoveries library.
Doctoral Festival of Ideas
Held on Tuesday 23 June and Wednesday 24 June 2026, the Doctoral Festival of Ideas featured an inspiring programme including an opening keynote, interactive workshops, networking sessions and faculty-led talks all designed to celebrate and enhance our research culture.
Have a look at photos from the Doctoral Festival of Ideas 2026.
Keynote Speaker - Lieven Scheire
We were honoured to welcome Belgian scientist and comic, Lieven Scheire as our keynote speaker for this year’s Festival of Ideas. In his highly engaging talk, ‘What exactly is this Artificial Intelligence that everyone is talking about?’, Lieven introduced this new ‘superhero of technology’ in an entertaining and accessible way. With perfect clarity, Lieven demystified how AI works, what it already can do, and what it will be capable of in the future. We thank Lieven for his innovative, interactive and fun take on AI.
Poster Competition
40 doctoral researchers exhibited and explained their research in this year’s poster competition with a prize going out to the top posters from each participating faculty.
Congratulations to the following faculty winners:
Faculty of Engineering and Design: Yufei Dai, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: Qi Ye, Department of Education
Faculty of Science: Diego Oviedo Chavez, Life Sciences
Faculty Workshops
Thank you to each faculty and their facilitators for putting on the following workshops:
Faculty of Engineering and Design: ‘Storytelling for Public Engagement’
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: ‘Making a meaningful difference to society through research: an impact literate approach to change’
Faculty of Science: ‘Research across disciplines in the age of AI - shared journeys, shared questions’
School of Management: ‘Publishing "big papers": Learning from the review process in high-impact management journals’
Who Wrote This? Moving Beyond Abstract Critique to Explore AI in Academic Writing
On day two, doctoral students held a highly innovative AI workshop. Attendees were invited to write a short essay on AI and its impact on learning, research, creativity, and our world. The workshop is part writing retreat, part research study, and part essay-writing competition. Attendees were free to use any AI tools they would like, within the time limit. At the end of the workshop, attendees were asked to reflect on the experience and their perception of the final output.
The Lighter Side of Research: PhD research through humour
‘The Lighter Side of Research: PhD research through humour’ returned for its second iteration. This year PhD students performed not one, but two comedy shows. The first in Bristol and the second hosted at Burdall’s Yard to a sold-out audience! 10 doctoral students, from the universities of Bath, Bristol and Bath Spa. Under the guidance of comedy trainer Angie Belcher, participants took part in a series of workshops helping them craft and perform their sketches. It was a fantastic programme and proof that research ideas can be shared in myriad novel ways! A big well done to our courageous Bath participants: Guillermo Zaracho, John Kerr, Kyriacos Rouvas, Loïc Marmey, Lucia Burtnik, Sarah Trolley and Stanley Thompson – you were brilliant!
The Integrity Quest – A Cooperative Board Game
The Festival of Ideas proudly hosted the launch of a brand-new board game. Developed through Enhancing Research Culture funding, the Doctoral College and the Research Policy, Governance and Integrity team worked together to create The Integrity Quest, an innovative board game created to support the training and development of doctoral researchers by equipping them with the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to navigate research ethics and integrity in practice.
A well-attended and popular session, through cooperative gameplay and facilitated discussion, participants were encouraged to engage with complex research integrity scenarios, challenge assumptions and learn from diverse perspectives in a supportive environment.
Bake Your Doctorate
And to conclude the Festival on a (sugar) high, we hosted our Bake Your Doctorate competition where doctoral students created mouth-watering bakes based on their research. This year, in homage to the University of Bath's 60th anniversary, bakers were tasked with imagining what their research might look like in 60 years-time for an extra special "Bake to the Future" edition of Bake Your Doctorate.
Two awards were presented: the Judges’ Award, based on taste, visual appeal, and effectiveness in communicating research, and the People’s Choice Award, voted for by attendees.
Judge’s Award – Angèle Macé with ‘Back to the re-source!’ a bake reflecting her research on ‘Integrated technological and behavioural changes for sustainable campus accommodations.’
People’s Choice Award – Sylvia Charles with her cake ‘Envisioning the future of bioprocessing’, creatively reimagined her research on ‘The challenge of optimising reactor geometries in fluidised bed bioreactors to enhance the production of viral vectors and life‑saving therapeutics.’
A big well done to the winners and the participants – your bakes were sumptuous, you all did an amazing job!