People

Dr Nowlan has accepted a Professorship position in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland, with effect from January 2021. Her web profile at UCD can be found here. For the next few years, the Developmental Biomechanics group will be split between London and Ireland, with plenty of travel between (once feasible). Niamh is excited about this new opportunity and for what the future holds for the research group and programme!

Huge congratulations to Vivien (soon to be Dr Sotiriou) for passing her PhD viva in September 2020! Thank-you to the examiners Prof Malcolm Logan from King’s College London and Dr Neal Bangerter for a thoughtful and in-depth virtual viva. Thanks also to the group and alumni who joined the virtual celebrations afterwards!

Saima is leaving our group and we will miss her so much! We are excited however to continue working on all the lovely data and papers in preparation. Saima will start studying medicine in the Autumn, and we wish her the very best in her studies.

Big congratulations to Devi, who passed her PhD viva. Her thesis is entitled “The role of movement in early embryonic joint development”. Many thanks to the examiners, Prof Neil Vargesson and Dr Angela Kedgley. Devi is now studying graduate entry medicine at King’s College London so will be a double-doctor in a few years time! Well done Devi!

Best wishes to Aurélie, who is finishing up in the group. We had a lovely send-off for her in South Kensington with lunch and ice-cream from Oddono’s! Lucky for us, Aurélie isn’t moving too far away, and will be doing some exciting research in David Labonte‘s group, also in the Department of Bioengineering.

** March 2020: Update- Aurélie was awarded a Marie Curie Skodowska fellowship to return to her native France- Congratulations Aurélie!! **

Cristian is leaving Imperial College to take up an exciting new position in industry with global healthcare company BTG. We are very sorry to lose him but wish him all the best with the next step of his career- good luck Cristian!!!

A warm welcome to Nidal Khatib who joined the Developmental Biomechanics group in January. Nidal will be using our mechanostimulation bioreactor system to explore mechanotransductory pathways and mechanisms acting during prenatal skeletal development. His project is a collaboration with Prof David Hoey from Trinity College Dublin, and is funded by Niamh’s ERC Starting Grant.

The group celebrated an “eco-friendly” Secret Santa this year, with homemade or edible gifts being the rule. Some very tasty treats were shared, but the best gift was definitely the “mini Kaushik” that Yuming made, complete with computer and signature water bottle. Kudos Yuming! The secret santa fun was followed by a very nice Indian meal in South Kensington. Happy Christmas from all the Nowlan group!

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A warm welcome to two new PhD students, James and Josépha, and two new MRes students, Seb and Stephanie, who joined the group in October. Looking forward to great research activities ahead! The group celebrated the new academic year with an escape the room activity- lots of fun as always!