Images of Research 2025

Creative approaches in psychotherapy including art, and how this could be a solution for some issues that arise within therapy sessions for multi-cultural Muslim clients receiving therapy in the UK.

With the proportion of BME population increasing in the UK, the question is how to integrate children belonging to ethnic minorities in the mainstream? I shall evaluate how a cross-cultural curriculum is a candidate for a solution.

Observed during a survey of Jersey’s Marine Protected Areas, this disguised ray provides a perfect metaphor for the challenges scientists face in spotting the patterns in marine processes which drive the biodiversity in our seas.

This series of images shows just a glimpse of the marine landscape within the protected areas around Jersey’s offshore reefs of which this common stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca) resides in.

Here at the University of Plymouth we have developed these Aerogels to adsorb toxic metals from water at a rate 10 times greater than traditional activated carbon and the Aerogel is fully biodegradable and biocompatible.

Here at the University of Plymouth we have developed these Aerogels to adsorb toxic metals from water at a rate 10 times greater than traditional activated carbon and the Aerogel is fully biodegradable and biocompatible.

Using texts and images to map ebbs and flows, entangled becomings and space-time matterings, this project troubles traditional approaches to the doctoral thesis. Research is not what we do, but who we are.

As a postgraduate researcher and as a research fellow, I have combined honest assessment of the status quo with stimulating the imagination to explore how the design of health and wellbeing products could be more personalised.

I helped set up, and continue to run a memory café in Cornwall. I was so struck by Betty’s words, I was inspired to find out more. Memory cafes provide a community based meeting place for people living with memory problems or dementia.

Our research focuses on exploring the feasibility, impact, and applicability of 3D printing technology in the teaching of clinical skills, the ability to standardise assessments, and the transfer of these skills to real patients.

Utilizing practice-as-research and autoethnographic methodologies to investigate the formation of hegemonic masculinities.

Researching how ideal/ hegemonic representations of masculinity influence men to engage in practices and subjects of hierarchy, violence, power, domination, control, stoicism and physical/emotional invulnerability.

My practice-led arts research draws on subjective experience to investigate the performance of self and construction of identity in embodied and conceptual modes of self-representation.

My practice-led arts research draws on subjective experience to investigate the performance of self and construction of identity in embodied and conceptual modes of self-representation.

My practice-led arts research draws on subjective experience to investigate the performance of self and construction of identity in embodied and conceptual modes of self-representation.

In my research, I use Drosophila melanogaster embryonic nervous system to identify new key NSC regulatory genes. In this model, the different NSC types are well known and recapitulate all the major properties of their mammal counterparts.

My PhD explores participatory and adaptable methodologies, which encourage children with special educational needs and or disabilities (SEN/D) to communicate their thoughts, feelings and ideas in their preferred style.

I’m interested in the ways in which the page can create a sense of place. My poetry values the space of the page as a play of textual and visual fragments and I wonder if zooming in on the minutiae of a place is akin to the act of writing a poem.

Our research focusses on the application of graphene for biosensors paving the way for highly sensitive, rapid and straightforward diagnositc pre-screening sensors with the intention to eleviate strains on health services globally.

This is a microscope image of the inner ear of a mouse taken at 630x the magnification of the naked eye. I use the inner ear of mice to model schwannoma, a type of brain tumour that forms on the auditory nerve in humans.

Beneath the ocean surface there is not only plastic and the effects of decades of damaging fishing techniques, there can also be hope. Hope in the form of a mussel farm.

Understanding how coastal communities perceive the future is key to encouraging sustainable development. Sustainable development should, therefore, involve listening to local stories and learning about people’s hopes and fears.

The Irish Border. My research is investigating the landscape representation of this border region known locally as a ‘third country’. These inhabitants and region are often overlooked, yet have witnessed horrific violence.

Casual conversations are insightful portals to local feelings of the border issue. The free flowing water is a metaphor for the freedom of movement currently available between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The Irish Border. This research investigates how this deeply contentious space has been a battle ground for differing Irish political, religious and cultural Irish identities through photography

I study how cereals can face harsh climatic conditions. This kind of research is essential to breed crops that can thrive in drier parts of the world, so that we can keep producing enough food to feed the growing population on our planet.

The Fluency Trust residential course for teenagers who stammer integrates group speech and language therapy with outdoor activities like surfing and climbing.

Our current research at Plymouth (SIGMA Peru project) is studying tropical glaciers in Peru, and how their retreat could affect the water, food and energy security of mountain communities and those further downstream.

In our current research project, SIGMA Peru (Societal Impacts of Glacier Melt in the Andes, Peru), we are seeking to understand the challenges of current and future glacier retreat on water quality and quantity in the Rio Santa, Peru.

Grytviken Harbour - October 2016 visit on board RRS James Clark Ross. An unexpected detour on route to the Falklands during a research cruise.

This photograph depicts the tragedy under water caused by blast fishing: damaged reefs, coral rubble and a lack of sea life. Researchers from Plymouth collaborate with institutions to build capacity for sustainable interactions with marine ecosystems.

Scientific monitoring of the European Lobster is being undertaken in the Isles of Scilly supported by the Isles of Scilly Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority to gather evidence from one of the UK’s most biodiverse areas.

My PhD focuses on how healthy stem cells transform into tumourigenic cells that drive the formation of tumours. The picture shows a cancer stem cell derived from the brain tumour of a patient, reprogrammed to transform into a healthy glial cell.

My research focuses on glacier retreat in the South American Andes and the implication on water resources. This photograph shows alpacas in the mountainous region of the Cordillera Real, Bolivia, at around 5,000 meters above sea level.

In an effort to help conserve European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and in collaboration with the local fisheries authority (D&S IFCA), University of Plymouth scientists have implanted electronic tags within 150 seabass.

RRS James Clark Ross October 2016. A 7 week journey due south, 800 miles, 100 degrees of latitude. You know you are heading into the infamous “roaring forties” when the Albatross arrive.

November 2015 – 12 hour shift sampling the ocean for microplastics off Plymouth. Bitterly cold but treated to the most amazing sunset. Glinting off the water that we are sampling for this hidden pollutant.

Sea level rise influences the rate of coastal erosion, and the degree of wave overtopping that happens along our coast, and small changes in sea level can dramatically increase both of these coastal hazards.

Our UK/Indian collaborative project investigates both the biological restrictions to freshwater crab aquaculture and the socio-economic viability of the venture.

My research specifically focuses on the effect of elevated temperature on the survival and physiology of marine embryos in the hope of contributing to our knowledge of the impacts of climate change on marine life.

I was provided the opportunity to visit Pripyat, Ukraine during my PhD which focused on environmental radioactivity.

The increasing exposure of food images led to the impact of ‘visual hunger’ and ‘digital satiation’. By using grounded theory and image analysis, the genera visual characteristics are hoped to link with the particular food perceptions.

By finding the differences of food perception from horizontal and vertical plating, a perpendicular plate was designed.

My project is to create an image of a sustainable community, and it is also everyone’s responsibility to join me. So let’s start by imagining together because the world will surely change someday.

My research encompasses the impact of storms on our coastlines. This photo was taken at Droskyn headland, Perranporth at last light following a period of high winds. A break in the weather produced this stunning combination.

In an age of perfectionism with increasing pressure to be ‘liked’, my research uses diverse forms of photographic media to investigate how the curation and comparison of ideal versions of oneself impact on acceptance of the real, unedited self.

I am writing a book about a murder case involving a teenager I knew growing up on a Cardiff council estate. It describes the difficult lives of the families involved but is also filtered through the skewing of time as it affects how we perceive the truth.

In my PhD I focus on the effects of digital porosity on photography. Digital porosity is an effect of the current Internet and impacts on how context and chronological order of an events are perceived by enabling disjunctions between time and space.

When capturing an image of a person, we ask them to focus their attention on the camera, a mental process of selectively focusing on a task whilst ignoring irrelevant stimuli. I am investigating if similar emotion-driven attention biases exist in horses.

Our research programme FRESH AIR looks into prevention and management of chronic lung disease in global settings. This photo is in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan where we investigated smoke exposure from yak dung fires in people who spent 9 months in yurts.

The real essence of research is in the people. It’s moments like these, discussing work in a new café, in a new city, after a conference, when you realise how lucky you are being able to call these people friends as well as colleagues.

Realism is the long-held standard in prosthetic breasts, despite a broadening of styles in other prosthetics. I am working with women to design alternative, non-realistic prostheses that they will enjoy wearing because they are beautiful and comfortable.

Our eyes are a vital part of our being, are the doorway to our soul, our feelings and emotions. My research aims to improve and develop efficient ways of screening and monitoring age-related macular degeneration, hoping to impact wellbeing for good.

It is undeniable that working during the winter in Northern Europe and the Arctic region results in a particular aesthetics in the visual materials produced, colouring the way in which the images are captured, and framed.

Strong negative feelings of residents living in proximity to the proposed Roseacre Wood site near Preston, Lancashire.

Chirona hameri barnacle samples. These barnacles pose a potential issue for marine energy devices, impacting on their ability to generate electricity and to survive the harsh marine environment over a long period of time.

The filthy streets are punctuated by human ‘nests’. Sometimes occupied. Often not. I only photograph the empty ones. Enough has been taken already.

The image shows a local man making his way down the Moa River in a boat, against the backdrop of the forest.

This is tested by measuring behaviours, the amount of sperm and eggs produced and how well babies survive. This image shows sperm produced by one of the male fruit flies.

Investigating the genomic and phenotypic basis of local adaptation in the black honey bee.

George is examining effortful fundraising experiences as part of his PhD.

Around the world new diseases are emerging and wildlife is declining. Amphibians - frogs and toads, newts and salamanders, and caecilians – are dramatically disappearing.

A pile of Laminaria digitata kelp. These samples were used in mechanical material testing to aid the process of modelling these kelps with man-made materials. The models are used in lab tests to assess their impact on wave energy devices.

Felicity's PhD focuses on emerging diseases of wildlife. In particular, two amphibian/reptile diseases that are fatal and have caused population declines. Her field sites are in Costa Rica, where many species have become extinct due to disease.

comparing the amphibians, water beetles and ants that inhabit these island like hilltops in one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots.

George is examining effortful fundraising experiences as part of his PhD.

As an artist I will develop my ideas in a continuous stream of sketchbook journals as I make notes, draw and experiment with materials and methodologies.

Image Siobhan Mckeown.

Pictured is the Dorset based Open Air Dairy at milking time.

his research now hopes to expose this hidden life-world, and give hope…

An on-going protest taking place in October 2017 by local action groups at the entrance of Kirby Misperton fracking site in North Yorkshire.

Sea caves which lie in Torbay’s Marine Conservation Zone.

Ishaka on a visit to an oil export terminal in Nigeria.

This photograph was taken by a participant in Leonie's research study and represents mixed emotions about a new home.

By filming with the same Éclair camera as Huillet and Straub, with myself as researcher driving the most widely used car in Rome in the early 1970’s, and by using direct sound, the experience blurs timeframes.

This image shows the (now working) incubator that I will use to change the temperature that the flies are experiencing.

Process 12 - Copper mines in Devon, where the film is subjected to extraction process of the mine and prolonged exposure to the plates and environment.

Photo illustrates the isolation and confusion that people with dementia can experience within an airport environment.

As an artist it is easy to spend too much time looking inwards but without engaging with critical dialogue ideas can remain unchallenged and artwork undeveloped and worse, unseen.

The relationship between the mineral shapes help us geologists to understand the history of the rock we are looking at.

Image by Steven Paige.

The Ties That Bind forms part of a series of practice research experiments which took place during an artistic residency at Black Mountain School, North Carolina USA in June 2016.

This confocal microscope image (600x) shows uptake by some insect cells of a fluorescently labelled cell-penetrating peptide.