Postgraduate Researchers' Summer Conference 2025

Welcome to Postgraduate Researchers' Summer Conference 2025

Our Postgraduate Researchers' Summer Conference (PRSC) is an annual event for all research students.

PRSC2025 edition will take place on 17th and 18th June 2025, a global showcase of the research carried out by researchers across all MDX Faculties, our Collaborative Partner Institutions and our overseas campuses. The theme of the conference this year is "Sustainability in Action: From Vision to Implementation".

The first day will be held in person at our Hendon campus, while the second day, Wednesday 18th June, will feature online paper presentations and Zoom access to keynote addresses to ensure wider accessibility.

This year marks the 15th year of the Summer Conference, featuring presentations from research students and early career researchers

across our London and international campuses, as well as from our partner institutions. More than 70 attendees and presenters have registered for the event.

Our Chancellor, Dame Janet Ritterman, will deliver an address on 18th June, outlining MDX's research ambitions as set out in the University Strategy to 2031 and highlighting the pivotal role sustainability plays in the work of our postgraduate researchers.

Dave Philp (Chief Value Officer at Bentley Systems) will give the opening keynote on Tuesday 17th June, setting the tone for the conference with his address on this year’s theme: “Sustainability in Action: From Vision to Implementation.”

Day Two will feature a keynote address from Dr Olwenn Martin, Associate Professor in Health and Environment at UCL, renowned for her expertise in integrating and translating both fundamental and observational scientific evidence into policy. Strong thematic threads run through all keynotes, with both speakers highlighting the pressing responsibility of emerging researchers to ensure their work drives real world impact

The Summer Conference this year is chaired by Dr Noha Saleeb, Dr Vesna Lukic and Tricia McQuarrie.

PRSC 2025 brings together a diverse community of postgraduate researchers from across disciplines to explore how sustainability can underpin critical enquiry. This long-established event is a cornerstone of the MDX calendar, offering a valued opportunity to celebrate research across faculties and partner institutions, foster meaningful collaboration and strengthen our research community.

The conference features a compelling line up of keynote speakers and performances that resonate with this year’s theme. We look forward to two days of lively discussion, critical thinking, creative exchange and an in-person experience designed to both challenge and inspire.

Approximately 52 oral presentations and 16 poster presentations are scheduled to be  delivered, spread across three time slots of three parallel sessions each. Its a remarkable demonstration of the diversity of disciplines and variety of research projects carried out by the MDX Research Community: sports science, psychology and psychotherapy, English, performing arts, childhood studies, natural sciences, computer science, business and management, law and criminology, covid-19 related studies, organisational theology and theological studies, design, engineering and mathematics and so much more that can be viewed in the Book of Abstracts. It has been decided by the organising committee that prizes would not be awarded this year; in part to engender a greater sense of community and collaboration rather than competitive individualism (as outlined in the call for abstracts and the Chair’s welcome).

Drawing inspiration from the wise words from bell hooks (philosopher, teacher, activist):

"The challenge these days, is to be somewhere, to belong to some particular place, invest oneself in it, draw strength and courage from it, to dwell in a community"

Presenters’ work addresses the theme ‘Knowledge into Action’, reflecting our shared purpose “to educate and to create and share knowledge for a fairer, more sustainable, productive and prosperous society”. The theme offers a rich ‘somewhere’, a space to collectively reflect on the potential for research to be bold, creative and impactful.

Our MDX research community is united by a commitment to generating knowledge that contributes to fairer, healthier, more prosperous and more sustainable societies. Sustainability plays a central role in achieving this goal.

The schedule has also been uploaded on to the MDX Research Area on MyLearning.

Reserve your place at the PRSC 2025 Conference

Keynote speakers

Dame Janet Ritterman
Chancellor – Middlesex University

Welcome address, Wednesday 18th June, 9:10am-9:20am

Dame Janet, our Chancellor, is a prominent academic and musician with a global reputation as a champion of the arts. She acts as a ceremonial figure-head of the University. Dame Janet has an important ambassadorial role in representing the University to external audiences to help build support for our mission.

Dave Philp
Chief Value Officer – Bentley Systems

Opening keynote address, Tuesday 17 June, 11:30am

“Architects of Reality: Your Research as the Blueprint for a Sustainable World”

Dave is a figurehead in digital engineering with over 30 years of global experience creating value for governments and infrastructure clients. His career, spanning major contractors and consultancies like Balfour Beatty, Mace and AECOM, has focused on mapping digital developments to critical business objectives across all sectors.

As CVO at Bentley Systems he is responsible for driving customer-centricity and creating sustainable value for clients across their asset lifecycle and portfolios.

Dave has been involved in delivering innovative projects, digital change strategies and digital asset management strategies across the globe from UK, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Australia and the Baltics.

He was seconded in the UK Cabinet Office in 2011 as Head of BIM Implementation and has been a key contributor to the UK public sector BIM mandate (GCS 2011-2016) he was also Chair of the Scottish BIM Delivery Group through the Scottish Futures Trust delivering the BIM requirements of the Scottish Government.

Out with the day job he continues to shape the industry as a Professor at Heriot-Watt University and Chair of the Chartered Institute of Building's (CIOB) Digital and Innovation Advisory Panel. He’s also author of the Dummies Guide to BIM and various other publication.

Dr Olwenn Martin
Associate Professor in Arts and Sciences

Arts and Sciences (BASc) Keynote address, Wednesday 18 June, 13:15pm

“From molecules to the planet - personal reflections on an interdisciplinary journey”

From her first degree in chemistry to her current academic practice within the wider planetary health movement, Olwenn’s career outside and within academia took a few unexpected turns. Weaving personal experiences with developments in emerging interdisciplinary fields, Olwenn will reflect on a few lessons learnt along the way.

Olwenn is interested in the connections between environmental change and well-being. Her research has focused on chemical pollution from the technosphere (processes, materials, and products) to the biosphere (our living planet). Within the wider planetary health movement, she has specialist expertise in endocrine disruption, plastic chemicals and mixture effects.

Keynote Performance

by Sangdi Zhou – Resonant Spaces, Grove Theatre

Wednesday 18 June, 18:00-18:30 

A unique performance exploring the intersection of art, research and sustainability, offering a creative conclusion to the conference experience.