Congratulations to Cohort 1 student, Jasmine Burr-Hersey who has published her first research paper recently. The paper, “Developmental morphology of cover crop species exhibit contrasting behaviour to changes in soil bulk density, revealed by X-ray computed tomography” is published in PLOS ONE. It examines the responses of root growth for different species of cover crop […]

Three STARS students have recently returned to their PhD research following time away working in policy placements. The students; Emily Dowdeswell, Jasmine Burr-Hersey and Hannah Cooper have been working with Defra in the Chief Scientific Advisor’s office, with the Plant Health Evidence and Tree Health Policy team and in the Library of the House of […]

Take a look at the new STARS CDT Facebook page, where we will be posting key STARS updates, information on upcoming events and keeping up to date with the activities of STARS PhD researchers.

Having recognised the shortage of individuals with quantitative skills coming into Environmental science, NERC are funding Research Experience Placements (REPs) over the summer for undergraduates studying degrees outside NERC’s remit (EG mathematics, statistics, computing, engineering, & physics). It gives undergraduates the opportunity to spend between 8 and 10 weeks working in an area of environmental […]

Following on from the STARS Innovation event in February, 3 STARS students: Lewis Rose, Dan Evans and Mihai Cimpoiasu, ventured to envEXPO in Norwich ready to put their networking skills into practice and further develop innovative skills around their PhD studies. Here Lewis offers his account of the event: The recent envEXPO conference at the […]

STARS student Emily Dowdeswell from Cranfield is thoroughly enjoying her Innovation Policy Placement within the Chief Scientist’s Office, Defra. Emily recently travelled to the Ordnance Survey, where she had a chance to explore the breadth of data acquisition and applications used by the OS. This serves a wide range of purposes: from environmental monitoring to […]

The New Year has brought new challenges for STARS students Emily Dowdeswell and Jasmine Burr-Hersey who have both begun their STARS Innovation Policy Placements with Defra in London. Emily began in January and is having an enjoyable and busy time working within the Chief Scientific Advisers Office, having visited the Met Office and the Ordnance […]

Following on from the success of the STARS innovation policy placement interviews, three STARS students Emily Dowdeswell (Cranfield) Jasmine Burr-Hersey (Nottingham) and Hannah Cooper (Nottingham) have secured positions within Government. These placements will each last a duration of three months, during which time the students will be positioned at the heart of policy, applying knowledge […]

Cohort 1 kicked off 2017 by embarking on their first international field trip, to Tenerife this January. The 8 day trip was led by Davey Jones and Dave Chadwick from Bangor University who were enthusiastically accompanied by Phil Haygarth and Emma Sayer from Lancaster University. The week aimed to broaden the cohort’s knowledge of soils […]

Several STARS students have managed to secure places on a fully funded Tropical Soils field trip to Brazil. The NERC funded trip, organised by Lancaster University in association with the Universidade Federal De Lavras, centres on a 6 day field trip to Lavras, Brazil. The course will include laboratory work, lectures and a collaborative research […]