MPLS Research Staff Forum

Chris Terry

Chris Terry is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Biology. He is a community ecologist, working towards understanding how whole communities of species will respond to climate change against a background of ongoing environmental variability using a combination of theory and lab experiments. He became a representative to be part of driving a positive agenda to improve the wider working environment of postdocs.

Stephen Marshall

Stephen is a postdoctoral research associate in Chemistry. He joined the University of Oxford in 2021 after eight years in Manchester completing his PhD and further postdoctoral study. His main research interest is in understanding how enzymes are able to perform complex chemistry using structural biology and biophysical techniques, and how the knowledge can be utilised to the benefit of society.

 Stephen became a research representative to improve research culture in academia to allow a healthier work-life balance for all, and to improve the wellbeing and inclusiveness of academia.

Stefano germano

Stefano is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science. He was also an MPLS Enterprise and Innovation Fellow for several years. His research focuses on how Artificial Intelligence and Semantic Technologies can improve knowledge management and reasoning in non-conventional environments.
He believes that creating a positive and supportive community is essential for fostering innovation and excellence and that researchers deserve a healthy work environment where they can thrive both personally and professionally. His aim is to listen to and amplify the voices of researchers, ensuring that their needs and concerns are heard and effectively addressed.

Ulrik Lyngs

Ulrik is Research Associate in the Human Centred Computing group at the Department of Computer Science, from where he completed his DPhil in 2021. During his DPhil, he was president of the Computer Science Graduate Society (COGS). His work explores how to design digital environments that help people stay in control of their time and attention, His work on the Reduce Digital Distraction Workshop, which has helped 1500+ staff and students in higher education, received the 2024 MPLS Early Career Social Impact Award. Ulrik became a research representative to improve the social work environments at the university.

Tom Smith

Tom Smith is a postdoctoral research assistant in the Department of Earth Sciences. His work centres on developing new methods for analysing the evolution of biodiversity and applying them to fundamental problems in palaeobiology. Tom became a postdoc representative because he believes that active community involvement is essential for the development and maintenance of a healthy working environment. 

Patrick Salter

Patrick is an Early Career EPSRC Fellow working in the Department of Engineering Science, with research interests in laser manufacturing and optical microscopy. He has been active in research at Oxford for over 10 years and believes strongly in creating a positive environment for research staff in academia. He was previously chairman and one of the founding members of the Engineering Science Research Committee.

Basia Maciejewska 

Basia is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Nanomaterials by Design group within the Materials Department. Her research focuses on the development of new manufacturing and "green" processing methods for functional fibrous materials used in thermal management applications. 

She has recently won the 2022 MPLS Outstanding Supervisor Awards, recognising individuals promoting and implementing an inclusive and welcoming environment in their research group. 

This year, she has been elected as the Chair of the Materials Postdoc Association Committee (MPAC), and she has been an active member of the MPA since its founding in 2020. Additionally, Basia represents materials postdocs at the divisional level within the MPLS division.  

Her vision for the postdoc community, spanning both the departmental and divisional levels, is centred around empowering, valuing, recognizing, and supporting postdocs in their current endeavours and future pursuits. 

Yige Sun

Yige Sun is an early career researcher in materials science. Her expertise includes 2D material, energy storage devices, 3D printing, and microscopy. She is currently a Faraday Institution research fellow in the Nextrode project, an enterprise and innovation fellow in the MPLS division, and a David Cockayne Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College. She also serves as a departmental Mental Health First Aider, a robotic project leader in Oxford Robotics and Additive Manufacturing Society (OxRAM), a career mentor under the People and Organisational Development (POD) unit, and a supervisor of a 3D printing lab in Oxford Materials Characterisation service (OMCS), University of Oxford. She was an archer in the Oxford Archers Club. Now She goes to the gym and sings soprano in the college choir every week. 

Kunhui Ye

Kunhui is a Marie Curie Fellow at Department of Physics, The University of Oxford. His current research focuses on extreme events, climate change and climate dynamics. After graduating from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016, Kunhui worked as postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University, Alfred Wegener Institute and Uppsala University between 2017 and 2023. He believes that researchers should be well supported to progress in career development as well as enjoy a work-life balance. He hopes to contribute to improving research culture and research staff career development in the division.

Juan Ruiz Ruiz

Dr. Juan Ruiz Ruiz is an EPSRC postdoctoral fellow in the Oxford Plasma Theory group. He completed undergraduate and Masters studies at Ecole Polytechnique (Paris, 2013), and received a Masters in Aeronautics & Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 2015). He completed a PhD in Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT in 2019, where he worked on turbulence and transport in the spherical tokamak NSTX. Dr. Ruiz Ruiz is interested in the confinement of hot, strongly magnetized plasmas for fusion energy applications. His expertise is on the interpretation of turbulence fluctuation measurements in tokamaks (high-k scattering, Doppler backscattering) using reduced scattering models and nonlinear gyrokinetic turbulence simulation. He is currently interested in understanding the interaction between highly energetic particles and plasma turbulence in tokamaks (JET, NSTX, MAST-U, JT60-SA), using experiments, numerical simulation and theory.

Matt Raybould

Matt Raybould is a postdoctoral researcher in the Oxford Protein Informatics Group, based in the Department of Statistics. He works in immunoinformatics, applying a combination of structural biology and statistics to understand better the inner workings of the immune system and to apply this knowledge to the development of novel medicines. He became a representative to continue the excellent work of previous committee members in raising awareness of the challenges faced by postdoctoral students.