WEISS Winter Workshop 2020

As with the majority of 2020 events, this year’s workshop was a virtual affair, but that didn’t stop our Christmas spirit, with many attendees donning festive attire for the occasion.

Proceedings began with a welcome from our centre director Dan Stoyanov, who spoke of the many challenges faced this year and praised the ingenuity and resilience of WEISS members for adapting to the new working conditions. This was followed by the launch of our 2020 Annual Report which highlights some of the fantastic achievements of our researchers and celebrates our community.

Next, 15 WEISS members took part in the research teaser competition where they were given 2 minutes and 2 slides to inform the audience about themselves, their passions and their research. All the participants came up with wonderfully creative ways to deliver their talks, from impressive card tricks to presenting with an Indiana Jones soundtrack. After a tense vote, the prize for best research teaser went to Semyon Bodian, with Peter Thanh Mai and Amy Warnock as runners up. Huge thanks to all of those that took part for providing some much-needed entertainment at the end of a long and difficult year!

Following a short break for socialising, it was time for the eagerly awaited 2020 WEISS awards! The award categories and winners are all listed below:

Public vote awards
Helping Hand Award: Clare Woolley
Collaborator Award: Hani Marcus
Best Teams / Zoom Presence: Dan Taylor
Most Likely to Respond with the Perfect GIF / Emoji: Clare Woolley
Best Christmas Photo: Ron Gaston

Public engagement awards
Communicating research award:
Eleanor Mackle, Elizabeth Carr, and Sacha Noimark
Claudia D’Ettorre, Emmanouil Dimitrakakis, and Lukas Lindenroth
Public engagement practice award:
Mirko Bonfanti, Gaia Franzetti, and the MUSE team

Executive selection awards
WEISS Outstanding Impact award: Patrick Brandao, Eleanor Mackle and Callum Little
WEISS Outstanding Contribution: Nina Montana Brown, Biswajoy Bagchi and Erwin Alles
WEISS Early Career Researcher of the Year: Carmen Salvadores Fernandez, Esra Aytac Kipergil and Yipeng Hu
Directors’ Special Commendation: Rawen Kader, Sophia Bano and Zac Baum

To end the workshop, those who had participated in the WEISS Secret Santa came together to unwrap their gifts, which ranged from Harry Potter trivia to a plant propagation station.

Congratulations to all of our award winners and indeed everyone at the Centre for making it through what has been an extremely challenging year! We look forward to seeing what 2021 has to bring!