#pgrtrek – The Bristol Doctoral College Blog

Your #PGRtrek pictures — a globetrotting gallery

Posted on 8 September 201817 September 2018 by Doctoral College

Whether it’s a quick trip to Trondheim or several weeks in Sri Lanka, many PGRs use the summer months to travel beyond Bristol for conferences, symposia and fieldwork. What better way to capture the diverse range of locations visited by these roving researchers than to round them up in a globetrotting gallery? (OK, so we could’ve made a map instead — but we thought this would be more visually appealing.)

Yes, the #PGRtrek competition returned for another year — and this year’s selection of shots didn’t disappoint, with photos featuring everything from frozen fjords to sun-kissed sands. A selection of our favourite snaps are below. Which one do you like the most? Tell us in a comment.

Celebrating the Olden times

Claire Williams submitted this image of a serene green lake, taken during her visit to Olden in Norway.

Trondheim travels

This year’s Inascon conference, held at NTNU Trondheim, gave some of our PGRs a chance take in the spectacular Geiranger Fjord in Norway — as captured in this photo by Victoria Hamilton.

Rwandan roamings

This shot of a school in Gitarama, Rwanda, was submitted by Leanne Cameron, a researcher in the School of Education.

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A post shared by Leanne (@leanneagain) on Aug 3, 2018 at 1:05am PDT

Canadian crustaceans

This downtown crab was captured by Anouk Tleps whilst on a break from a conference in Vancouver, Canada. Although this wasn’t the farthest-flung location, Anouk was the winner of this year’s random draw.

Jassi’s epic journey

Although not a winner in this year’s competition, University of Bristol Law School PGR Jassi Sandhar deserves an honourable mention for submitting a stunning selection of images from her recent fieldwork in Rwanda, Uganda and Sri Lanka — featuring Buddhist statues, waterfalls and a particularly bovine beach. And how many people can say they’ve been photobombed by an elephant?

The trees of Telok Blangah

Second-year PhD student Ashley Tyrer travelled to Singapore in June to attend OHBM 2018 — and, whilst there, took this striking image of Telok Blangah Hill Park. By our calculations, this lush foliage is over 11,000km from Bristol, making Ashley this year’s runner-up.

A quick hop to Honolulu

It was a close-run contest, but her trip to Honolulu, Hawaii for a conference — a journey of over 11,800km — meant Angie McFox was crowned this year’s #PGRtrek winner. Congratulations, Angie!

Thank you to everyone who took part! Whether or not you were a winner, we really enjoyed seeing your images and reflecting on how far PGR life can take you.

[This blogpost was updated on 10 September 2018 to include Angie McFox’s photo and to make it clear that this was the winning entry.]

Where has your research taken you this summer?

Posted on 2 August 20186 August 2018 by Doctoral College

A pinboard with the caption: Tell us about your #PGRtrek — Featured images: Lake Superior by Andrea Iannelli; Honolulu by Fiona Belbin; Melbourne by Kacper Sokol; Montmorency Falls by Lin Ma; Patagonia by Sarah Tingey.

We know that the summer months can be busy for Bristol’s postgraduate researchers, and that many of you use the time to travel overseas for conferences, symposia, field work, and so on.

We thought it’d be fun, then, to launch a photo challenge with a travel twist.

Yes, our #PGRtrek competition is back for 2018 — and, this time around, the postgraduate researcher who’s been to the farthest-flung location (for ‘business’ reasons rather than pleasure) will win a £50 contribution towards the cost of any research-related travel. We’ll also be offering another £50 contribution to a random draw from all other entrants to the challenge.

To enter our competition — and see your pin on our map — just share a snap from your travels in one of the following ways:

as a comment on one of the Bristol Doctoral College’s #PGRtrek Facebook posts
as a tweet with the #PGRtrek hashtag
as an Instagram post with the #PGRtrek hashtag
in an email to doctoral-college@bristol.ac.uk.

We’ll be sharing a #PGRtrek gallery on the blog later in the year, so please let us know if you don’t want your picture to be featured.

The closing date for the competition is noon on Friday 31 August. Good luck — and happy snapping!

Terms and conditions

The competition is open to current postgraduate research students at the University of Bristol.

The closing date for entries is 12pm on Friday 31 August 2018.

The prize is £50 towards the cost of any research-related travel.

The prize will be awarded via a transfer of funds or a reimbursement of expenses.

The prize will be awarded to the entrant whose research-related activity was the furthest Bristol. The activity in question must have taken place between 1 June and 31 August 2018.

Unless entrants indicate otherwise, images submitted during the competition will be featured on the Bristol Doctoral College blog.

Putting Bristol’s postgraduate researchers on the map

Posted on 15 September 201719 September 2017 by Doctoral College

We asked you to tell us where your research took you this summer — and your tweets, Instagram pics and emails didn’t disappoint, with tales of dashing to Denmark from Honolulu and popping to Patagonia for PISCES (a project to measure the impact of ice field shrinkage).

But who has won the (rather striking) University of Bristol scarf?

The pins on this Google Map show that some of our postgraduate researchers travelled pretty far indeed, with entries about journeys to Canada, China and Japan.

However, when Kacper Sokol told us about his trip to the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Melbourne, we knew that this would be difficult to beat. (According to Google, Melbourne is 10,599 miles from Bristol — giving it a 2,000 mile lead over our next-best entry, Sarah Tingey’s terrestrial work in Chile.)

Although it’s fun to see the pins on our map, the most impressive part of the competition has been the fantastic photographs that PGRs sent along with their entries. Some of our favourites are in the gallery below.

Hawaii sunset — ‘Not a bad spot for a conference dinner.’ Fiona Belbin, you are not wrong.

Waterfall — Enthralling falls. Lin Ma saw some spectacular sights during her trip to Canada.

‘The ever-present foreboding grey low lying clouds at Camp Steffen, Patagonia’ — courtesy of Sarah Tingey.

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne. — The Melbourne supremacy — Kacper Sokol’s trip to Australia won our #PGRtrek competition.

Lake Superior — A ‘Superior’ shot by Andrea Iannelli, who visited the lake whilst she was based in Minneapolis.

A group of postgraduate researchers on the Great Wall of China. — Walking the Wall — Rosalia Cuahtecontzi Delint and friends during her trip to China.

A giant model of a bear — Bear with me. Monika Frysz’s encounter with a creature whilst in Denver.

A woman in a canoe — Canoe? Don’t mind if I do. Cat Jarman enjoys a day off in Hawaii.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the #PGRtrek competition. Even if you didn’t win, you’ve helped to show that life as researcher really can (ahem) take you places.