Kirsty McIntyre, PhD student from the Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health has been awarded the New Researcher Outreach and Engagement award 2018 from the Royal Society of Biology. Kirsty was recognised for her contribution to public involvement and engagement and for her efforts in increasing the breadth and diversity of the audiences she reaches. She has designed and delivered outreach workshops and practical sessions for over 500 pupils as a widening participation fellow for the University. She has also helped start the University’s maternal and foetal health research centre patient and public involvement and engagement steering group, and has organised face-to-face sessions with patients to inform her research and to understand how best to communicate the Centre’s findings more widely.

More recently, Kirsty collaborated with fellow-PhD students to develop the Have You Heard? Project, with an aim to make scientific discoveries in the news clearer.

Kirsty said of receiving the award: “Finding new ways to engage members of the public with research has become my passion and so I am delighted to have my work recognised by this award.”