The Festival included highly entertaining and thought provoking guest speakers Professor Douglas Chamberlain CBE (Consultant Cardiologist, Brighton) and Professor Daniel Wolpert (Sensorimotor learning group, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge).

Professor Chamberlain has been a leading international light in the world of cardiac emergencies and resuscitation for the past 40 years. In each decade since the 1960s he has introduced something unique and valuable to the field of resuscitation. His contributions range from studying the early beta blocking drugs to the clinical introduction of automated external defibrillators, from the principles of education and training to the ethics of research and the history of resuscitation. Professor Chamberlain’s humorous keynote lecture highlighted the importance of proper design of our own and critical analysis of others research to avoid incomplete, inaccurate, misreported, misleading, or fraudulent research influencing medical practice. Please click here for the Professor Chamberlain's slides.

 Left: Professor Douglas Chamberlain present the Keynote lecture

Right: Professor Tom Quinn thanks Professor Chamberlain for a superb lecture

Professor Wolpert uses engineering approaches to understand how the human brain controls movement. His work includes both computational modelling and experimental approaches using robotic and virtual reality interfaces. His research areas include motor planning and optimal control, probabilistic (Bayesian) models, motor predictive and modular approaches to motor learning. Professor Wolpert’s Festival lecture enlightened us to the fact that brains exist merely to control movement, the reason why its worse when someone tickles us than when we tickle ourselves and why we always feel our opponent hit us harder than we hit them. Please click here for Professor Wolpert's slides. 

Left: Professor Daniel Wolpert presents the Festival lecture

Right: Professor Ian Kitchen thanks Professor Wolpert for an excellent lecture

Each of the Faculty's 6 research themes presented a short "Hot Topic" presentation, highlighting cutting edge research within the Faculty and selected an early career researchers to present their research in competition for the best oral communication prize: Ms Nathifa Moyo, Mr Rueban Jacob Anicattu Issac, Dr Karen Stenner, Mr Tom Waller, Mr Ciaran Fisher and Miss Sherie Smith.

Left: Dr Ann Gallagher presents a hot topic talk from the Healthcare Practice and Well-being research theme

 Right: Miss Sherie Smith presents a selected oral for the Sleep, Chronobiology and Neurodisorders research theme 

The judges awarded the oral presentation prize jointly to Miss Sherie Smith and Mr Rueban Jacob Anicattu Issac.

In addition the FHMS postgraduate student researcher of the year Dr Simon Poynton presented his research on Alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells: Non Platinum cathode electrocatalysts. 

Above: FHMS Post-graduate Research Student of the Year, Dr Simon Poynton presents his research 

About 100 staff and students presented their work at the lunch time poster session (below).

Four poster prizes were awarded to early career researchers Mr Junjie Du, Mr Onyi Diribe, Dr Izabel Villela and Mr Daniel Mejiles. 

Left: FHMS Dean, Professor John Hay presents poster prize to Daniel Meijles

Right: FHMS Dean, Professor John Hay presents poster prise to Izabel Villela

We would like to thank all our presenters, attendees and our sponsors.

For full details of presentations see the festival programme. To download the abstract booklet in PDF format please click here.

The 2012 Festival of Research will take place on 3rd July 2012 in the lecture theatre building. Keep watching this website for more information.