PhD/ECR
SINAPSE is committed to supporting PhD and Early Career Researchers across the network in their development. We hold an annual PhD Welcome Event open to all 1st and 2nd year PhDs throughout SINAPSE, make funds available for exchange trips aiding in forming links at home and abroad, and our Annual Scientific Meeting is the perfect place to begin presenting posters and research in a friendly atmosphere.
Aiding us in supporting you are volunteer representatives from our partner universities who form the Early Career Researcher Committee. Each university has at least 1 PhD and 1 ECR representative and in turn a PhD and ECR from the Committee attends the SINAPSE Executive meetings.
We have online training, and are developing an entrepreneurial course for the SINAPSE network.
We also recognise that sometimes you face difficulties and need support. We have an ECR support page which directs you to resources and help at your home institution.
Early Career Researcher Committee
The Early Career Researcher Committee represents the views of PhD students and Early Career Researchers to SINAPSE so we can better support and respond to the needs of this important part of the imaging community. If you’d like to be a representative please contact Richard Mosses.
Current ECRC Representatives
Aberdeen – PhD Rep Liene Balode
Dundee – PhD Rep Martina Kopcanova; ECR Rep Yilong Zhang
Edinburgh – PhD Rep Fabian Yii; ECR Rep Jenny Waymont
Glasgow – PhD Reps Elizabeth Jacobs, Jayden Tomkinson; ECR Rep Jodi Watt
St Andrews – No reps at the moment
Stirling – PhD Rep Emily Cunningham
Strathclyde – PhD Reps Sara Scarfo, Megan Clapperton
Dundee Representatives
ECR Representative – Dr Yilong Zhang
Biography: Dr Yilong Zhang is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee. Yilong obtained his PhD at the University of Dundee in 2022 with research focused on optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology and applications. Yilong’s main research interests are OCT, elastography for medical diagnosis, and tissue-engineering applications. He also has extensive experience in ultrasound and MRI imaging for prostate disease, investigating the bioeffects of low-intensity ultrasound, wound healing, image processing and statistical modelling.
Contact information:
Email: y.z.z.z.h.zhang@dundee.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 7731960231
Glasgow Representatives
PhD Representative – Elizabeth Jacobs
Biography:
Interests:
Elizabeth Jacobs is a multidiscipinary researcher and PhD student, currently working within the SOCIAL AI CDT, located at the University of Glasgow. Her interest in human behaviour and emotion science was further cultivated by her time at York, when she was enrolled there for a BSc in Psychology. In her final year, she specialised and designed her dissertation project around the Dangerous Decisions theory and first impressions of faces. Furthermore, Elizabeth also conducted aliterature survey on whether the modulation of human emotions is capable via artificial intelligence. Both of these independent research avenues really honed my interest in on the relationship between human behaviour and artificial intelligence, especially in relation to emotions, micro-expressions and body language. Her current research interests extend beyond her undergraduate psychology background, into human behaviour, computing science and artificial intelligence domains. Elizabeth’s current research project revolves around the fight or flight phenonmena, and how virtual reality can be harnessed to study and modulate the emotional appraisal of fear, aggression and empathy.
Elizabeth is always keen to collaborate with her fellow researchers, to paint a more comprehensive picture of emotion science and evoked behavioural responses that manifest through bodily action and facial expressions.
Research Themes:
Human behaviour, consisting of emotion appraisal, body langugage and micro-expressions. Survival responses that are centric to fear and trauma research. The use of artificial intelligence to emulate, replicate and evoke emotional states for study.
Contact Information:
Email: 2694507J@student.gla.ac.uk
PhD Representative – Jayden Tomkinson
Biography: Jayden Tomkinson (they/them) is a Glasgow based PhD researcher in Medical Robotics. They are based in the James Watt Building of Glasgow University. Their research interest include: ultrasound diagnosis, medical robotics and autonomous systems
Contact Information:
Stirling Representatives
PhD Representative – Emily Cunningham
Biography: Emily Cunningham is a 1st year PhD student in the Psychology department at the University of Stirling. Her research involves finding reliable neural and physiological markers of attentional lapses, both in the lab and outside of the lab, in more ‘real-world’ settings.
Contact information:
Email: e.k.cunningham@stir.ac.uk
Strathclyde Representatives
PhD Representative – Sara Scarfo
Biography: Sara Scarfo is an Edinburgh-based 2nd year PhD student in the Psychological Health and Sciences department, 2nd year student. Her research interests include: Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, healthy ageing and age-related diseases, neuropsychiatric symptoms, neuropsychology and neuroimaging
Contact information: