Thomas Willis Day 2025

Three-minute theses

After a welcome address from Head of Department Professor Kevin Talbot, the event kicked off with the popular three-minute thesis (3MT) presentations by DPhil students from all four years. Everyone did very well to convey the essence of their research in an accessible way in just three minutes! The winners were:

Year 1: Samantha Foster, 'Research into the clinical epidemiology of cerebral amyloid angiopathy'

Year 2: Ludo van Hillegondsberg, 'Understanding variability in Parkinson’s Disease through the study of proteins'

Year 3: Lucy Jobbins, Phenotyping Sleep and Circadian Rhythm Disruption in Dementia

Year 4: Claire Johnson, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Hunt for Rogue Antibodies in a Deadly Autoimmune Neuropathy

Breakout Sessions

The next section of the day offered attendees a choice of three breakout sessions focused on personal and professional development.

Chris Jeffs ran a session for early careers researchers and students. Chris provides career support to students and research staff across all the departments, divisions and colleges at the University of Oxford and coordinates the ‘Careers Beyond Academia’ conference for researchers exploring career transitions.

Maddie Mitchell ran a workshop for managers and aspiring managers on inclusive leadership. The session was an opportunity to think about what is meant by inclusive leadership, and what it means to be a ‘leader’ at Oxford. Participants reflected on their own strengths and thought about how to use them to be more careful and intentional.

The third option was a session on resilience at work by Roddy Bray. Roddy runs the ‘Being for Beginners’ series, which is designed to enable personal growth and improve wellbeing. The session integrated experiential learning, private reflection and insights from a range of disciplines and traditions, within a storytelling style.

A lecture room full of people, holly bridge on stage presenting

Inaugural lecture

New for this year was the opportunity to hear from one of NDCN's recently appointed professors giving their inaugural lecture. This year we celebrated the research and achievements of Professor Holly Bridge through her lecture entitled 'From checkerboards to restoration: 25 years of studying the visual system'.

Prize Giving

Last order of the day was for Professor Talbot to announce the winners of the 3MT competition and to present the prizes. The winners of this year's NDCN Departmental Prizes were:

A group of people holding certificates and smiling