Skip to main content

University of Reading Cookie Policy

We use cookies on reading.ac.uk to improve your experience. Find out more about our cookie policy. By continuing to use our site you accept these terms, and are happy for us to use cookies to improve your browsing experience.

Continue using the University of Reading website

  • Schools and departments
  • Henley Business School
  • University of Reading Malaysia
  • Applicants
  • Student
  • Staff
  • Alumni
  • Local Community
Show/Hide navigation
University of Reading University of Reading
Mobile search categories
  • Clearing
  • Study and life
  • Research
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • View courses
  • Home
  • Clearing
    • Clearing courses
    • How to apply
    • International applicants
    • Accommodation
    • Register your interest
  • Study and life
    • Study
    • Student life
    • Accommodation
    • Open Days and visiting
    • International students
  • Research
    • Themes
    • Impact
    • Innovation and partnerships
    • Research environment
    • Get involved
  • About us
    • Our global community
    • Business
    • Local community
    • Visit us
    • Strategy
    • Governance
    • Governance
  • Contact us
  • Applicants
  • Student
  • Staff
  • Alumni
  • Local Community
  • Schools and departments
  • Henley Business School
  • University of Reading Malaysia
  • View courses
  • Themes
    • Environment
    • Agriculture, Food & Health
    • Heritage & Creativity
    • Prosperity & Resilience
  • Impact
    • Sustainability research
    • Research highlights
    • REF 2021
    • Research Awards
    • Research Films
  • Innovation and partnerships
  • Research environment
    • Research strategy
    • Funding
    • Support for researchers
    • Facilities
    • Research culture
    • Public engagement with research
    • Open Research
    • Animal Research
    • Research integrity
    • Promote your research
  • Get involved

Embark

Research Engagement and Impact Awards

Simple minds image

simple minds

The complexity of the human brain is well known, as is the difficulty of translating scientific language so that the latest findings of brain research are easily understood. A project led by Ioannis Zoulias, a postdoctoral research assistant in the Biomedical Engineering division, is going a long way to making brain research more accessible.
Working with the University’s Brain Embodiment Lab, Dr Zoulias designed interactive demonstrations illustrating the “what?”, “how?”, and “why?” of investigating the brain. The demonstrations, which included a brain-computer interface enabling the audience to control a virtual body by their thoughts alone, were hosted in settings ranging from open days, at prestigious venues including the Science Museum in London, to school presentations. Each demonstration had a tangible impact on its audience, with participants gaining new knowledge of the inner workings of the brain, asking questions, enquiring about research and how they could forge future careers in science. The project has promoted interchange of ideas among researchers, and it is ongoing. Future demonstrations in schools and public events are planned, and the engaging demos have been used by ambassadors during university open days.
Read more

The project aims to illustrate the most recent academic findings on the inner workings of our brain, showcase through active experience how researchers go about making those findings, and explain how cutting-edge technology and brain research can be used for improving health conditions.

Ioannis Zoulias
Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in the Biomedical Engineering Division
Death penalty in Japan image

death to hanging

For the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the death penalty is a “cruel punishment [that] has no place in the 21st century.” By April 2017, more than two-thirds of the country in the world (141 countries) had abolished capital punishment in law or in practice. But in Japan, the death penalty remains lawful and prisoners continue to be executed.
Dr Mai Sato is going a long way to changing Japan’s received notions of the legitimacy of the death penalty. Dr Sato began work on her project, Public attitudes towards the death penalty in Japan, in 2013, testing the Japanese government’s claim that the death penalty has widespread public support with attitudinal data. Dr Sato discovered that the majority of the population base their views on limited information and inaccurate perceptions, and that the Japanese public is ready to embrace the abolition of the death penalty. Dr Sato’s report, The Public Opinion Myth: Why Japan retains the Death Penalty, and The Wavering Public?, a documentary she commissioned, garnered extensive media coverage in Japan, thanks in part to her tireless efforts to build alliances and networks that would reach out to professional and policy audiences. The law may yet change in Japan – and, also, in India, Kenya, Zimbabwe and other jurisdictions that retain capital punishment, where Dr Sato has also been asked to conduct research.
Read more
Solar stormwatch image

solar stormwatch

Solar Stormwatch is a project to map, for the first time, solar storms – eruptions of mass ejected from the sun’s atmosphere.

Led by Dr Luke Barnard and Professor Chris Scott in the Department of Meteorology, its key components are citizen science, open research and worldwide public engagement.

In 2006, NASA launched the twin STEREO spacecraft. With cameras taking images of the sun’s surface, atmosphere and solar winds, the spacecraft were soon producing a huge volume of data that was challenging for scientists to analyse in detail and in a timely manner. Solar Stormwatch plugged the gap, developing web-based, real-time activities enabling the public to record storms and work with scientists. Space weather, a natural hazard listed in the government’s national risk register, is now better understood, and the project has generated a number of peer-reviewed publications. Worldwide, more than 16,000 people participate in Solar Stormwatch from 94 countries. The project is ongoing. It has led to a collaboration between the university and the Space Weather Prediction Center in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US, and the creation of new activities to answer new research questions established in this fastmoving, dynamic area of research.

Read more

The project aims to raise awareness in Japan that the public are kept in the dark about the death penalty and promote debate about its continuing existence, and, on a wider level, to provide abolitionist organisations with tools to mobilise public campaigns against the death penalty.

Mai Sato
Lecturer at the University of Reading in the School of Law

Solar Stormwatch highlights the value of citizen science and the value in open research practices. The project has resulted in a paradigm shift in our understanding of how to physically model solar storms, with the public and scientists alike combining to push the science forward more quickly.

Luke Barnard
Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading.
mask
CHOOSE A SUBJECT
2025/26
2026/27
Undergraduates
Postgraduates
Undergraduates
Postgraduates

Subjects A-B

  • Accounting
  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biochemistry
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Bioveterinary Sciences
  • Building and Surveying
  • Business and Management

Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Classical Studies
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Criminology
  • Drama
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environment

Subjects F-G

  • Film & Television
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Foundation programmes
  • French
  • Geography
  • German
  • Graphic Communication and Design

Subjects H-M

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • International Development
  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
  • International Relations
  • Italian
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
  • Medical Sciences
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Microbiology
  • Museum Studies

Subjects N-T

  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacology
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate Studies
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Sociology
  • Spanish
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Surveying and Construction
  • Teaching
  • Theatre & Performance

Subjects U-Z

  • Wildlife Conservation
  • Zoology

Subjects A-C

  • Accounting
  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Archaeology
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Business (Post-Experience)
  • Business and Management (Pre-Experience)
  • Classics
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management and Engineering
  • Consumer Behaviour
  • Creative Enterprise

Subjects D-G

  • Data Science
  • Dietetics
  • Digital Business
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Energy and Environmental Engineering
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Film, Theatre and Television
  • Finance
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Geography and Environmental Science
  • Graphic Design

Subjects H-P

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • Information Technology
  • International Development and Applied Economics
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Microbiology
  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Project Management
  • Psychology
  • Public Policy

Subjects Q-Z

  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Social Policy
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Strategic Studies
  • Teacher training
  • Theatre
  • Typography and Graphic Communication
  • War and Peace Studies
  • Zoology

Subjects A-B

  • Accounting
  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biochemistry
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Bioveterinary Sciences
  • Building and Surveying
  • Business and Management

Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Classical Studies
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Criminology
  • Drama
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environment

Subjects F-G

  • Film & Television
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Foundation programmes
  • French
  • Geography
  • German
  • Graphic Communication and Design

Subjects H-M

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • International Development
  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
  • International Relations
  • Italian
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
  • Medical Sciences
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Microbiology
  • Museum Studies

Subjects N-T

  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacology
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate Studies
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Sociology
  • Spanish
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Surveying and Construction
  • Teaching
  • Theatre & Performance

Subjects U-Z

  • Wildlife Conservation
  • Zoology

We are in the process of finalising our postgraduate taught courses for 2026/27 entry. In the meantime, you can view our 2025/26 courses.

Ready for more?

See job vacancies
Press
Procurement
View courses
  • Charitable Status
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Terms of use
  • Sitemap

© University of Reading