The BSI Early Career Researcher Network is a vibrant and inclusive community that champions collaboration, inspires new ideas, and supports personal and professional growth.
Supporting Early Career Researchers (ECRs) is a defining part of the Biophysical Sciences Institute's mission. For over a decade, the Institute has championed a collaborative and inclusive research culture for all BSI members by championing Early Career Researcher and embedding them into the leadership structure of the Institute.
Our commitment to researcher development is also reflected in the leadership roles its members have played in delivering taught Masters courses, and establishing the MoSMed and SOFI Centres for Doctoral Training. Together, these activities bring researchers from a wide range of disciplines and career stages into a dynamic community that drives innovation, strengthens research excellence and helps address some of today's most pressing scientific challenges.
Our Early Career Fellows build on the success of our Early Career Stage activities and recognise the value that ECR bring to our community.
Applications for Fellows are competitive and come with a range of career development and financial benefits.
While we are committed to offering all PhD students high-quality interdisciplinary training, network opportunities and wider student experience through our network, our experience is that interdisciplinary ECRS need more tailored support. Please use the link below to apply for the scheme.
Early-career researchers from across the UK gathered at Durham University earlier in September for the Physics of Life ECR Bootcamp 2026: Communicate, Collaborate, Discover, a three-day programme designed to support professional development, stimulate scientific collaboration, and build community across the physical and life sciences.
Supported by the UK Physics of Life Network, the Biomolecular Condensates Community, and the Biophysical Sciences Institute, the bootcamp strengthened the interdisciplinary community and invested in the development of future research leaders. The BSI was delighted to support the event and looks forward to seeing the collaborations, ideas, and opportunities that emerge from the connections made during a successful and energetic three days in Durham.
More about this here
For the fifth consecutive year, the Biophysical Sciences Institute (BSI) was proud to sponsor Pint of Science Durham, helping to bring cutting-edge research out of the University and into the heart of the community.
The Durham festival was organised by a talented team of volunteers, including BSI Early Career Researchers Lauren Billett (Chemistry), who led the 2026 team, and Alex Newbold (Physics). For Lauren and Alex, the 2026 festival marked their final year as volunteers, having played a key role in delivering Pint of Science Durham since 2023.
Durham University hosted the highly successful Early Career Researchers’ (ECR) Winter Symposium 2025, welcoming around 100 participants from universities, institutes and companies across the UK and beyond. The one‑day event brought together researchers working at the interface of biomathematics, biophysics, biological chemistry, chemical biology and bioengineering, highlighting the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration in the life sciences.
Organised by Durham’s Biophysical Sciences Institute (BSI) ECR community, the 2025 Symposium provided a platform for early‑career scientists to present their latest work, exchange ideas, and establish new research networks.
The 2025 Physics of Life Summer School, held in September 2025, brought together early career researchers from across the UK and beyond for a week of scientific discussion, interdisciplinary connections, and community building. Hosted in Durham, the programme showcased the breadth and ambition of research at the interface of physics and the life sciences, while offering participants unique opportunities to learn and connect.
The Biophysical Sciences Institute (BSI) Early Career Researcher (ECR) group launched the new event series, “What on Earth am I Doing (Next)?”, on 4 June 2025 with a lively and well-attended session in the Department of Chemistry. The session was led by the BSI ECR groups’ chair Libbi Moon and new ECR member Matt Grobellaar and attracted researchers from across Durham University who were eager to explore career possibilities and share ideas.
In 2024, Dr Josh Hughes was awarded the BSI Thesis Prize for his thesis, Biological and photophysical analysis of novel diaryl acetylene photosensitisers for the treatment of oral epithelial dysplasia, completed under the supervision of Professor John Girkin. His research explored novel photosensitisers and their potential application in treating oral epithelial dysplasia, bringing together biological and photophysical approaches.
The Early Career Researchers' Winter Symposium 2024, hosted at Collingwood College Durham University, marked an exciting event for the next generation of researchers at the boundaries of the life sciences and the other physical sciences. With over 50 attendees from eight institutions and companies, the one-day event focused on presenting cutting-edge research, and showcasing interdisciplinary discoveries from across biomathematics, biophysics, biological chemistry, chemical biology and bioengineering.
A group of Department of Physics Postdoctoral researchers and PhD students took part in a spray paint workshop. The workshop was led by Lewis Hobson from Durham Spray Paints, who they were introduced to through the BSI's Seed scheme. This led to the creation of new artworks for the "boring corridor" in Physics (see below) and a new mural for the Department of Physics is being planned.
The Early Career Researchers’ Winter Symposium 2023, held at St Mary’s College, Durham University, marked an exciting return for the ECR community as the first in-person ECR symposium since the pandemic. The one-day event brought together more than 40 researchers from universities and industry, providing a platform for the next generation of researchers working at the interfaces between the life and physical sciences. Talks showcased cutting-edge interdisciplinary research spanning biomathematics, biophysics, biological chemistry, chemical biology and bioengineering.
A particular highlight was the symposium dinner, held at Durham University Business School. After dinner, artist Alexandra Carr spoke about her practice and the ways in which mathematics and the physical sciences inspire her work, bringing a creative perspective to the symposium’s wider celebration of interdisciplinary thinking.
The 2023 Thesis Prize was awarded to Katy Cornish (Department of Chemistry). Her thesis “Fantastic proteins and where to find them” was selected by a panel of BSI members after being nominated by his PhD supervisor Prof. Ehmke Pohl (Department of Chemistry and Biosciences). The image below shows sampling of proteins from a geyser in Iceland, one of a number of extreme conditions. Find out more about this research and the wider Virus X Consortium project on our Chemical Biology pages.
Earlier in the year we laid down a Twitter Haiku challenge - can you write down the most important part of your research as a haiku? We wanted to make people think about the main message of their work, to capture the essence of their research. We were blown away by the responses from the budding poets and from the judges: poet Dr Katharine Goda, Prof. Tom McLeish FRS (University of York), Prof Masao Imaseki (Durham University).
The winning haikus covered topics from astrophysics to the author's personal growth through the PhD journey. One of the winners' haiku's is shown below (Cian Rynne, Durham Biosciences) and all three can be read in full in this news story or found at #Haikumyresearch.
We took up the challenge laid down by Professor Lorna Dougan (Astbury Centre, University of Leeds) to transform toilet roll tubes into the scientists who inspire us. The scientists immortalized in loo-roll form included Margarita Staykova, Judith Howard, Eva Crane and Steven Cobb.
See our LOOminaries at the link: http://ow.ly/3BvD50DWHnN.
Our very first research symposium was held at the end of July 2020. The symposium was held virtually and attracted more than 50 participants from 45 different institutions (13 different countries and 3 continents!). It was an amazing end to our first year of events and a offered a taste of what is yet to come.
To mark the occasion the 2020 ECR Symposium’s keynote talk was the Howard Prize Lecture. This was given by Professor Silvia Marchesan (University of Trieste) and was an amazing talk entitled “Heterochiral Peptide Assembly: Entry in Wonderland through the Looking-Glass” an Alice in Wonderland themed journey through peptide chemistry.
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