PhD Award Winners 2026

Prize for Outstanding PhD Thesis

Each year the Festival of PhD Research recognises the very best of our doctoral community - outstanding scholarship, bold ideas and imaginative research communication. Congratulations to all our 2026 winners, whose work is showcased below.

Dr Matthew Curran, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr Jonjo Brady, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr Senhui Qui, Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment

Dr Sameh Khalil, Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment

Dr Srinivas Sivaraman, Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment

Dr Thomas Garner, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Dr Sabrina Demirdjian, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Dr Bren Whelan, Ulster University Business School

3MT® is an academic competition that challenges PhD Researchers to describe their research and its significance, in non-specialist language to a general audience, in just three minutes.

Further details on 3MT® 2026

Winner: Jodie Mills

3MT® Title: Living with Parkinson’s: Can Alexa be your Speech Therapist?

Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Runner Up: Varsha Natarajan

3MT® Title: How Earth’s Sand Dunes Can Take You to Mars?

Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

People's Choice Award: Jamie-Maria McNulty

3MT® Title: Can Help Really Be Just One Click Away?

Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Best Poster

The Best Posters were chosen by panels of judges made up of academic colleagues from across the University. There was a Best Poster award in each of the interdisciplinary research themes in the Festival of PhD Research: Accelerating Data Futures, Building the Sustainable World, Challenging Inequality and Division, Inspiring Creativity and Innovation, and Transforming Health. Prizes were presented by the Heads of Doctoral College, Dr Patrick Dunlop and Professor Alison Gallagher.

Róise Gribben - The Role of microRNAs in Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition - Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Ellen Mason - Prevalence of Drug-Induced CYP2D6 Phenoconversion Among Individuals with a Psychiatric Disorder: A UK Biobank cohort study validated by systematic review and meta-analysis - Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Emily Krueger - B-vitamin status in older adults over time: impact of fortified foods and supplements - Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Majid Liaquat - Synthetic Tabular Data for Human Activity Recognition: Importance, Generation, and Impact - Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment

Rachael Wilson - Using eye tracking and behaviour analysis to assess consumer acceptability of sustainable foods produced in an aquaponics system as part of the international Aquaponics from Wastewater Reclamation project (AWARE) - Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Challenging Inequality and Division, Sophie Haggerwood, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

Inspiring Creativity and Innovation, Sajjad Barzegar, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

The theme for the 2026 Photography Competition was ‘Curiosity in Action’. As part of the Festival of PhD Research, participants were invited to explore and visually represent curiosity as a lived aspect of doctoral practice. Prizes were presented by the Doctoral Development Manager, Lisa Thompson.

Further details on the Photography 2026 competition

Winner: Majid Liaquat

Stairway to Heaven , Culicagh. The Path is Real. What it crosses is not.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment

Runner Up: Varsha Natarajan

Earth to Mars: How Far Can Curiosity Take You?

Faculty of Life and Health Sciences

People's Choice Award: Reshma McMullan

Like the Salmon of Knowledge I’m Still Searching for Wisdom - Mine Just Involves More Lab Work.

Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment

Bake Your PhD is a creative research communication initiative that encourages PhD Researchers to represent their complex research topics through baking. Prizes were presented by the Head of Doctoral College (Coleraine / Derry~Londonderry campus), Professor Alison Gallagher.