After another year, the wait for the 2023 Postgraduate Symposium was finally over and this one most definitely lived up to its expectations! As always, these two days provided us with fascinating insight into the PhD projects across Botany and Zoology. The range of captivating topics really drove home how we are a school of explorers; with projects working on the microscopic scale right up to climate systems, from the colonisation of land to novel taxonomic discoveries and everything in between. It was a pleasure to sit back and enjoy the amazing work being done by our PhDs.
The symposium kicked off with a bang, or rather a talk on the explosion of plant diversity in the Devonian, from our first plenary speaker, Dr. Sandy Hetherington. Visiting from the University of Edinburgh, Sandy is an evolutionary palaeobotanist. His research team, the Molecular Palaeobotany and Evolution Group, is taking an interdisciplinary approach to characterising the origin and evolution of key land plant innovations.
Dr. Hetherington gave us insight into the prehistoric botanical world, providing an overview of the colonisation of land and dynamic radiation of plants. He also describes the recent work by his team that looked at primitive rooting systems in the Rhynie chert, a sedimentary deposit that preserved Devonian plants in extraordinary detail. Using successive cross-sectional slides of the rhizoids of Asteroxylon mackiei, his team were able to produce a 3D model of the subterranean axes of this plant, providing an accurate visualisation of an early rooting system.
I was thoroughly impressed with the level of detail and the presenting skills of the cohort, but four talks in particular stood out above the rest:
Charlotte Morgan grabbed the prize for the best five minute presentation. Her talk on herbicide resistance in critical grass species was succinct and well organised. It was clear that Charlotte had hit the ground running, having generated and processed a wealth of data despite having started her PhD in Teagasc a mere six months ago. Charlotte’s work focuses on determining the genetic and biochemical basis of herbicide resistance, in particular for black-grass, through a range of resistance surveys as well as greenhouse and laboratory analyses with the aim of designing robust weed management strategies to combat herbicide resistance in Irish agriculture. Definitely one to watch out for in years to come!
Clinton Haarlem was voted by the audience for the best presentation for his engaging and interesting talk on variation in visual temporal processing. Clinton is investigating how and if people experience the world differently as a result of variation in visual perception speed. Using staff and students as his study group, the data from this research has already produced interesting and surprising results. Clinton is still accepting applicants if you would like to get involved in this study!
Aedín McAdams took home the prize for the best 10 minute talk for her excellent presentation of habitat rehabilitation for the introduction of Vertigo geyeri. Proficiently organised and delivered, Aedín showed us that she knew this project inside out. Her research documents a hydrologically sensitive relic snail species that is under threat due to human impact. The project looks at the efficacy of the mitigation measure that has been put in place by Uisce Éireann to restore the fen habitat in Lough Talt, Co. Sligo.
Last but not least, the prize for the best overall presentation went to the first year PhD student, Ian Clancy. An outstanding and informative talk, one of the only complaints Ian received was his timing, technically going overtime by about 40 minutes as a consequence of both technical issues and an ensuing fire alarm! Ian’s research investigates the carbon and GHG dynamics of organic soils under grassland management and its impact on CO2 and CH4 emissions. This work aims to help understand the drivers of carbon losses, their relative impacts and will quantify how rewetting changes in water table and management can reduce carbon losses. Despite the obstacles facing him, Ian delivered a phenomenal presentation that deserved to take home the top prize.
The symposium drew to a close with our final plenary speaker, Dr. Aidan O’Hanlon, a curator of the Natural History Museum of Ireland. Aidan is an entomologist that is currently performing a taxonomic investigation of Ireland’s endemic subspecies, mapping the distribution of multiple insect groups and working towards IUCN Red Lists and risk assessments for economically and medically important insects. His talk gave us a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the Natural History Museum, the rich scientific heritage of Ireland and the collection that can be found there.
This Postgraduate Symposium was undeniably a huge success, and I learned so much over the course of the two days. It also gave us the opportunity to catch up with (nearly) everyone in Botany and Zoology, which so rarely happens with how busy we all are! The future is definitely bright for this group, with such interesting projects being driven by clearly passionate and engaging researchers. The confidence that everyone showed was impressive, as we all know how nerve-wracking but rewarding it can be to give a talk on your project.
On that note, we would like to give our thanks and congratulations to all of the presenters and also to our wonderful plenary speakers that made this year’s Postgraduate Symposium truly special. I for one, cannot wait to see what the future holds for these projects. Last, but most certainly not least we would like to give a massive thank you to the organising committee who, despite a host of technical difficulties and fire alarms, did an excellent job of provided us with an amazing Symposium.
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