Watch all-staff talk on UoR research stories

Three fascinating examples of Reading research were shared at the latest all-staff talk, where colleagues also got an update on ongoing work to understand and develop our research culture.

Professor Parveen Yaqoob, Deputy-Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), led the session and was joined by:

• Professor Andrew Mangham, English Literature researcher in School of Humanities. Andrew explained his interest in how the definition of monsters has changed in literature over hundreds of years, and how his research into this has been turned into an exhibition at Reading Museum. He also explained how humanities can be applied to healthcare in unexpected ways, such as through his reading and writing therapy project that supported Covid-19 patients and children being homeschooled during the pandemic.
• Dr Alejandra Perotti, biologist in School of Biological Sciences. Alejandra’s research into parasites that live on humans has taken her around the world. She has developed new methods to study nits on ancient mummies to learn about the ancestry of indigenous people in South America, and even used mites to help solve crimes.
• Professor Weizi (Vicky) Li, informatics and digital health researcher in Henley Business School. Vicky is involved in a number of major research projects applying artificial intelligence to healthcare. She is currently working with hospitals and patients to use machine learning to reduce the time it takes to diagnose inflammatory arthritis from several days to a few seconds.

Parveen concluded the session by presenting the background and early findings of work to enhance our research culture.

She shared the results of a recent research culture survey. This revealed some areas for improvement, which are feeding into solutions being developed by the project team.

Further updates on this work will follow in the coming months.