Unveiling Dementia's Lived Reality: a Philosophical Investigation
sarah wood

Summary

Despite currently being the leading cause of death in the UK, it is still the case that research rarely explores what it is like to live with dementia. Drawing upon methods in Phenomenology – a discipline which seeks to explain the structure of conscious experience – my research focuses on highlighting the personal stories of those who navigate this debilitating illness on a daily basis. Through phenomenological analysis of testimonies, I have found that people with dementia often report feeling increasingly cut off - not just from others who may not understand their mistakes, but from their own sense of belonging in the world as their condition progresses. Attempting to understand their lived reality is, therefore, critical for providing the most effective person-centred care which is, importantly, tailored by the experiences that they describe.

About Sarah

Sarah is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Philosophy at the University of York. Her current research seeks to provide a better understanding of what it is like to live with dementia, with an emphasis on first-person experience. Outside of academia, Sarah enjoys reading, baking and exploring new places.

Spiritually Awakened…Now What? The Aftermath of Life-Changing Spiritual Experiences
ruth vassilas

Summary

What happens when someone has an experience far beyond the ordinary — such as a near-death, out-of-body, or psychedelic experience — where the nature of reality is called into question? When science and religion offer few unified frameworks, how do people understand what happened? Who can they tell? And what do they do next?

This PhD explores the lived aftermath of spiritually transformative experiences in Euro-American contexts. Drawing on 49 questionnaire responses and 25 in-depth interviews, it examines how experiencers reconstruct their sense of self, others and world after the event. Participants describe managing new bodily sensitivities, fears of being dismissed or pathologised, and a longing to find others who “get it.” Amidst stigma, many turn to books as stand-ins for community and guidance.

This research sheds light on how people navigate the blurry boundaries between sacred and ordinary, transformation and crisis, and uniqueness and belonging when, suddenly, their entire world feels changed.

About Ruth

Ruth Vassilas is a corporate lawyer turned sociology researcher. Her PhD focuses on people’s lived experiences after spiritually transformative experiences, such as psychedelic, near-death and out-of-body experiences. At the University of York, Ruth has taught in the law and sociology departments and has just finished serving as the president of York’s Drug Science Society. Her passion lies in studying human flourishing, bridging spiritual and everyday realities and exploring personal and collective transformations.

Beyond Requests
rosario neyra

Summary

Students often run into problems when learning. But they don't usually ask for help directly.

My research looks at how students show they're having trouble and how they get help in hands-on lessons, like craft workshops. I use a method called conversation analysis to look closely at how students use talk and body language to show they’re struggling. I've found that students often use implicit methods to show they need help. They might describe a problem without directly asking for help or showing difficulty through their actions. Understanding these more subtle methods can help instructors notice when someone needs support. This means students can still get help, even if they haven’t asked for it directly. Ultimately, my research is about improving teaching. It helps make sure that students don’t miss out on support just because they don’t know how to ask.

About Rosario

Rosario Neyra is a PhD student at the University of York. Her research examines how assistance is organised in non-traditional classrooms, focusing on the embodied and interactional practices that shape roles and responsibilities in institutional settings.

Smarter energy decisions powering a greener future
Peter mwangi

Summary

To tackle climate change, we must rapidly switch to clean electricity. But building new power plants — like solar farms or wind turbines — takes years, and the future is uncertain. What if demand changes? What if better technology appears? My research helps answer a critical question: when is the best time to invest in clean energy infrastructure?

I use mathematical analysis and simulation to explore thousands of possible futures and identify strategies that balance risk, cost, and timing. By applying techniques from real options theory and stochastic control, I build decision-making tools that account for both construction delays and uncertainty — two realities that shape energy investment.

This analysis helps governments and companies make better choices about how and when to expand electricity supply. It’s about using mathematics not just to understand the future, but to act wisely within it — cutting emissions, avoiding waste, and building a power system that’s ready for the decades ahead.

About Peter

Peter is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Mathematics at the University of York who is originally from Nairobi, Kenya. His research focuses on investment under uncertainty and optimal stopping problems. Having previously worked in the finance industry, he now aims to improve the decision-making toolkit available to policy-makers, investors, and managers facing complex energy and infrastructure choices.

From Sweet to Sour: Sugars Misbehaving in Health and Disease
Morgan Batiste-simms

Summary

My fervor for the intersectionality of benchwork research and patient care has brought me to the Willems Lab in the Chemistry Department here at York. My research focuses on sugars that impact Muscular Dystrophy (MD), a genetic disease that causes the muscles to weaken, leading to increased disability or shortened life expectancy for individuals affected. In the UK, around 70,000 suffer from MD or MD-related conditions. In the US it is ~250,000, and worldwide around 1 in 5,000 individuals. The big picture of this project is to study the sugars integral in the structure and stability of muscle cells. I focus on the utilisation of sugars synthesised in the lab designed to act as small, chemical, activity-based probes within the cell. If we can pinpoint where these sugar-protein complexes are being improperly built, we can brainstorm therapeutic strategies to fight the severity of muscular dystrophy for patients.

About Morgan

Morgan Batiste-Simms is a 2nd-year Chemical Biology PhD international student here at the University of York (UoY). She is funded by the Wild Prize Studentship and when she finishes her PhD, she plans to apply to medical school to achieve her long-term goal of becoming a physician-scientist. When Morgan isn’t in the lab toiling over her sugars, she can be found bouldering at Red Goat, kicking it with the UoY College Taekwondo club, or keeping up with her language-learning!

Bone Builders: Super Stem Cells and the Future of Healing
Mahmoud metwally

Summary

50% of children experience at least one bone fracture before turning 18! Luckily, broken bones heal quickly in children, thanks to the body’s natural repair crew 'stem cells', which can rebuild damaged tissue. However, as we age, these cells decrease in number.

In conditions like osteoporosis, which affects millions of elderly people worldwide and causes bones to become fragile, fractures occur more frequently and heal poorly. Current treatments only slow down bone loss and cannot regenerate what has already been lost.

My research focuses on a special type of 'supercharged' stem cell that transforms into bone cells faster and more efficiently than typical ones. I developed a model where this transformation process closely mimics what happens inside the body, enabling us to identify the specific genes (switches) inside the cell responsible for bone formation.

With this knowledge, we can better understand how bone disorders develop and create novel regenerative treatments.

About Mahmoud

Mahmoud is a final-year PhD student in Biomedicine, funded by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education. It was during his master's degree in Egypt that he discovered his passion for research. He is a vet who loves animals, he enjoys playing football, hitting the gym, and has a personal interest in anthropology, psychology, and philosophy.

Belonging Shapes Belief: Why We Trust Misinformation
Lily parsons

Summary

Misinformation is a growing global concern.

From vaccine hesitancy to election interference, its real-world impacts are serious. While many assume misinformation spreads because people are uninformed or don’t think critically, my research explores a different lens: identity. Research shows that repeated exposure makes false claims feel true, but recent studies reveal that our judgments are also strongly influenced by who is sharing the misinformation. We're more likely to believe and share information from those who share our identity, such as our political affiliation, religion, or nationality.

My PhD investigates how our identity affects both our belief in misinformation and our likelihood to spread it, particularly on social media. I also explore how this varies across cultures and whether identity can be used to design more effective interventions.

About Lily

Lily Parsons is a PhD researcher at the University of York, studying how social identity and online interactions shape what we believe. Her work bridges social and cognitive psychology to explore why people believe and share misinformation, and how identity-based interventions might help stop its spread.

Trees vs Tsunamis: Mangrove forests as a defence against tsunamis
Jenny cudmore

Summary

Could lives have been saved in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami?

Mangrove forests have been maintained by coastal communities for generations to protect against storms and tsunamis. Increased levels of deforestation in recent years may have been a factor in the extreme levels of destruction experienced in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

My research involves creating simulations of tsunamis flowing through mangrove forests. These models include a virtual wave tank and arrays of cylinders to represent the mangroves. The impact of the cylinder array on the wave height can be observed. These cylinders can then be replaced by 3D scans of real mangroves to produce a virtual forest. The impact of a variety of factors can be calculated, such as forest width, density, arrangement and species, on inundation depth, flow velocity and inundation distance. The results will enable a forest with maximum levels of protection to be designed.

About Jenny

Jenny is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Environment and Geography, with a background in physics. Her research involves using computational fluid dynamics to numerically model the interaction between mangrove trees and tsunami waves. The aim is to determine the extent to which mangrove trees reduce the impact of these waves, and to parameterise the process for larger-scale models. Her motivation for her PhD is to improve coastal defences using nature-based methods.

AI Lacks Common Sense — And It Shows
Isobel Standen

Summary

How can something so obvious to humans be such a challenge for AI systems?

Humans rely on what is ‘just common sense’ to make decisions, particularly when faced with uncertainty. AI systems lack this capacity and often struggle as a result, but giving AI some common sense is no easy task. Although intuitive or even obvious to most, providing a concrete definition of common sense - what it entails and whether it is in fact ‘common’ - proves very difficult.

In my research, I analyse how humans use common sense to function successfully in everyday life and explore what it would mean for AI to have a similar capacity. Ultimately, a significant number of the errors that AI systems make are due to a lack of understanding and, without common sense, this is unlikely to be remedied.

About Isobel

Isobel Standen is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Philosophy and a researcher from the Centre for Assuring Autonomy. Her work is at the intersection of philosophy and computer science, where she is involved in projects that bring together multidisciplinary researchers for collaboration. Isobel’s research explores human understanding and decision making, specifically human common sense, and how the lack of this capacity may be one of the leading causes of errors made by AI systems.

Sugar coated secrets: Making bacterial sugars glow
Greg mcneil

Summary

Bacteria are microscopic organisms found everywhere, some of which cause disease. A major threat to public health is antibiotic resistance, wherein bacteria build up resistance to antibiotic treatments. According to the WHO, antibiotic resistance is predicted to cause 39 million deaths from 2025 to 2050. Some bacteria, called Gram-positive bacteria have a thick cell wall containing sugar-based polymers that help them survive, form biofilms, and resist antibiotics. These polymers are important targets for developing new treatments but studying them has been difficult due to a lack of effective tools. To overcome this, we developed new chemical “trackers”- modified sugar molecules that bacteria incorporate into their cell walls. These allow scientists to visualize the sugars by making these modified sugars glow under special light. This breakthrough will enable detailed mapping of bacterial cell wall structures, offering insights into how these polymers function and how they might be targeted by new antibiotics.

About Greg

Greg is a second-year PhD student in Chemical Biology at the University of York, where his research focuses on developing new tools to study important structures in bacteria. He is passionate about scientific outreach and communication. When not in the lab, you will probably find Greg in the cinema or at the pub with friends. 

Are stem cells From every bone the same?
Charlotte Titterington-Colman

Summary

Previous research has started to indicate that the bone of origin of a blood producing stem cell can actually have an impact on some of the decisions made by the stem cell in terms of which type of blood cell it becomes. This means that the hip may be less likely to produce certain types of blood cell than the femur (thigh) just because it is a different bone. I wanted to start looking at whether stem cells from bones such as the hip and femur respond the same way to the inflammatory signals that are often used to bias blood cell development to a particular cell type. My initial data does indicate that the stem cells from these bones do respond in differing ways.

About Charlotte

Charlotte is a Masters by Research student in the Kent lab. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of York and wishes to pursue a career in academic biomedical research. She is delighted to be provided with this incredible opportunity.

"which one is it?!" : Identifying the guilty immune cell
Aleksandra dabek

Summary

Chagas heart disease (CHD), a neglected tropical disease caused by tiny parasites called Trypanosoma cruzi, is one of the leading causes of infectious heart disease worldwide.

CHD is characterized by immune cell infiltration in the hearts of infected individuals, which is suggested to directly contribute to subsequent heart damage. Our human body is home to many different immune cell types that normally protect us from danger; however, in certain disease states like CHD, they themselves can pose a danger and cause damage to the affected organ. Despite many advancements in this research field, the specific immune cell type most responsible for heart damage in CHD remains an unsolved mystery…

This is why, during my PhD, I am trying to characterize the immune cells that contribute the most to heart pathology in CHD and identify a potential immune target to reduce or reverse heart damage caused by Trypanosoma cruzi parasites.

About Aleksandra

Aleksandra is a second-year PhD student in Medical Sciences at Hull York Medical School. Her research focuses on dissecting the immune mechanisms underlying infection-driven heart diseases. She aims to better understand the contribution of the immune system components to developing heart pathology in Chagas heart disease – a condition that affects millions, mostly in underdeveloped areas. Outside of her research, Aleksandra enjoys traveling, going to the gym, learning new languages and reading.