I am delighted to receive the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) Public Engagement Award 2024 and the Early Career Researcher (ECR) King’s Engaged Researcher Award 2024 for my public engagement and outreach work I have done through my PhD. I am driven by a passion for sharing neuroscience in ways that are accessible, inclusive and creative.

With PhD students in my department, the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology (CDN), we created an educational pantomime about our research, The Brave Little Neuron. Here, we transformed our complex neurodevelopmental research into interactive and fun performances to teach the public how our brains develop and how we each are unique. I coordinated the team for two years to perform across the UK at schools, events, music festivals such as Green Man, as well as at New Scientist Live. We reached audiences ranging from schoolchildren to grandparents, many of whom had little exposure to neuroscience before. Seeing people engage with the research and hearing their questions and reflections on our work was really inspiring. The project has now passed on to the new group of PhD students, and I am thrilled to see it continue to grow.

I am also involved with the UK-wide science charity in2scienceUK, where it is clear to see how impactful mentorship and accessible opportunities can help break down barriers in science. As a trustee with the charity, I have played a role in the shaping and growth of the organisation. This has also involved opportunities to mentor undergraduate students as part of the in2research programme, and it is clear to see the impact of diversity strengthening the scientific community.

I enjoy finding creative ways to share science, including performing science themed stand-up comedy around the UK and with Science Showoff, which has challenged me to communicate ideas in an approachable but entertaining way. Public engagement is a great way to connect neuroscience with society, and receiving these awards celebrates not just my efforts, but the incredible teams and communities I have had the privilege of working with.

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Summer Programme, an 8-week initiative fostering collaboration between Japanese research groups and PhD students or early career researchers from around the world. I was drawn to apply, as I wanted to enhance my research while experiencing life in a different culture. The application process required significant preparation, including liaising with my host professor several months in advance to develop a detailed research plan.

My PhD at King’s College London focuses on metabolism, specifically the link between brown fat, white fat, and the liver in the context of fatty liver disease. During my time in Japan, I collaborated with the Sakai lab and focused on a specific protein central to their work, that is underexplored in fatty liver disease. Their expertise gave me valuable insights into my research, which I can now apply to my work back in London.

Living and working in Japan was equally rewarding on a personal level. Exploring Japan’s rich culture was of course an integral part of my time. I spent my weekends discovering Northern Japan’s spectacular countryside and spent a few weeks after the programme travelling around the Southern Japan with friends.

Overall, this experience truly solidified the importance of international collaboration in science, and I feel really lucky to have been selected to take part in this programme.

Driven by a passion for educational equality, I joined the Baytree Centre as a volunteer to lead a weekly science club for girls in Years 4 to 6 from underrepresented backgrounds. Since April, I have been designing and delivering engaging, hands-on sessions every Tuesday evening, fostering a love for science.

In the first term, I introduced girls to brain anatomy and its functions through creative activities like drawing brain diagrams and constructing brain models with clay. These activities made complex concepts accessible and encouraged the girls to engage with science in a fun and interactive way. In the current term, I have expanded the curriculum to cover animals, plants, and the human body. Sessions include interactive discussions, hands-on experiments, and group activities, enabling the girls to recognize animal habitats, life cycles, skeletal systems, and plant structures and functions. Beyond teaching science, my primary focus is to help the girls develop character traits such as purpose, fairness, good judgment, resilience, and self-control. I encourage them to set personal goals for the club, solve problems collaboratively, cooperate with one another, and adhere to class rules.

As a 2023 In-Reach panel member at King’s College London, I had the opportunity to discuss my experience and offer advice on how to best navigate PhD programmes applications and the interview processes in the UK. This workshop was part of an undergraduate mentoring initiative that was set up to encourage students from under-represented backgrounds to apply for postgraduate research programmes. I am thankful to have been able to contribute by sharing my journey, and for this to have hopefully helped and supported other aspiring students from my community in pursuing a PhD.

I am a PhD student based at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, King’s College London. Aside from my PhD work, I am also the social media lead for one of our studies called mySkin. mySkin is a UK-wide longitudinal cohort study that aims to identify determinants of inflammatory skin disease onset, progression and treatment outcomes over time. Participants can self-enrol through our online platform and submit self-reported data and photographs every three months for one year. As such, engagement and inclusion are key to the success of the study, both to ensure participant retention over time and that the study population is representative of those affected by skin diseases.

I am responsible for maintaining our social media channels (@myskinstudy on Instagram and X), through which we advertise our study, publicise milestones reached, showcase participant feedback and disseminate emerging findings. My role includes designing posts on Canva, scheduling uploads and tracking engagement. Social media strategy is discussed at our monthly communications team meetings, which is attended by multiple stakeholders including researchers, patient representatives, clinicians, project managers and partner patient organisations (e.g. The Psoriasis Association). Thus far we have recruited over 800 participants and reached over 1000 followers on Instagram.

Results from our study have been presented at national and international conferences, most recently at the 53rd European Society for Dermatological Research meeting in Lisbon. These experiences have fostered a deep passion for public engagement in me, as I have witnessed the genuine interest people affected by skin diseases have in research and their eagerness to contribute. The potential impact of these activities are far reaching across the UK and internationally, and go beyond the affected individuals, extending to their friends and family, patient and professional organisations, industry, policy makers and more. This inspires me to continue bridging the gap between the academic world and the wider community.

Sneha Chotaliya, organised and led a series of advanced study seminars for secondary school students from low socio-economic backgrounds during the spring term of 2023. Through this initiative, she aimed to shift students’ perceptions of what it takes to secure a place at a prestigious Russell Group university and to demonstrate their potential to succeed in academically rigorous programs. The seminars included sample university lectures and hands-on assignments, offering students the opportunity to experience university-level learning. In addition, Sneha taught them how to critically evaluate and appraise academic literature, honing their ability to assess the reliability and quality of scientific evidence.

In June 2024, I gave a lecture at St Michael’s Catholic College titled “From DNA to depression: Exploring the role of genetics in mental health”. In this lecture I discussed my current research in psychiatric genetics to an audience of approximately 40-50 secondary school students. This was a wonderful opportunity to share my work with what turned out to be a very captive audience. I was pleasantly surprised with how many students volunteered their time to attend the lecture and how engaged they all were, asking questions and engaging in discussion with one another. Throughout the lecture, many students discovered that they disagreed with each other when it came to some of the more controversial issues in my field, something which I think sparked a lot of interest. Overall, I think the students really appreciated the opportunity to learn about something beyond the school curriculum (I know I would have done when I was in school). Schools like St Michael’s are always looking for guest speakers to give lectures like mine, and this is something I would definitely recommend to other PhD students. To anyone interested in disseminating their research to members of the public, make sure to consider school students, who I’ve learned can be among the most captive and thoughtful of audiences.

In addition to my PhD studies, I have the privilege of organising and contributing to the teaching at the KCL Pre-University Summer Schools in Psychology and Neuroscience. These residential summer schools run for one week at a time throughout July.

The programmes are designed for students aged 16-18, many of whom are considering applying to university. The aim of the summer schools is to offer them a taste of university life by incorporating a variety of teaching methods, including lectures, seminars, practicals, and visits to research institutions and museums. The majority of the cohorts are made up of international students, giving them a unique opportunity to experience both studying at a leading UK university and immersing themselves in a new culture.

I really enjoy the process of organising these courses as it not only highlights the exceptional learning experience we offer at King’s, but also provides a platform for early career researchers to showcase their work. Each year, I am amazed by the depth of knowledge the students bring and how quickly they absorb the course material. This experience continually inspires me to improve as a university teacher!

Alongside my PhD work, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate on an episode of The Science or Fiction Podcast. This podcast, produced and hosted by Dr. Kathryn Bates (Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology, IoPPN), interviews researchers to separate the science from the fiction in news headlines. This podcast is produced with young people (aged 16-24) and aims to provide them with the tools to critically evaluate research evidence and its accompanying media coverage. I am passionate about science communication and increasing the accessibility of research findings to young people, so I found this whole experience really inspiring.

I co-produced and hosted an episode for the podcast entitled: “What happens to the brain during pregnancy?”. We interviewed Dr. Laura Pritschet (University of Pennsylvania) about a Nature Neuroscience article of which she was lead author, which investigated structural brain changes over the course of a human pregnancy. Given that my own PhD research focuses on structural brain changes during adolescence, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of interviewing Laura about her perspectives on the findings of the study, and its coverage in the media. This experience also gave me valuable insight into the process of producing a podcast episode for young people and explaining complex research findings in an accessible format. You can listen to our podcast episode here, or on your favourite podcast platform.

I recently led workshops to teach year 12 and 13 students about cell culture methods as part of the Diabetes Research Group’s work experience week. This programme gives students from schools in and around London the chance to try their hand at different research techniques, and present their findings at the end. Taking part in these workshops was a great opportunity to share my knowledge with students, and give some insight to support them before making their post-secondary choices.

I found the experience really rewarding – having started my PhD with a non-biological background, I am very familiar with how daunting it can be to step into a tissue culture room for the first time! It was great to see the students become more comfortable and confident as the sessions progressed, and to tell them a bit about what life as a PhD student is like.

The sessions were great fun, and the students were excited about the topic. Explaining that I’m still a student myself encouraged them to ask their questions in a judgement-free zone, which made for great engagement and discussion. As someone who wants to follow an academic career path, the teaching experience was invaluable and improved my confidence in going for GTA roles at a later stage of my PhD.

I would really recommend getting involved in outreach opportunities with school students. You get excellent experience and the chance to share your knowledge and expertise, while also giving the students a fun and engaging session that supports their academic and career development.