Our PhD student, Alex Jenkins, has recently attended the American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference hosting over 17,000 respiratory professionals in San Diego, USA.
Lincoln Institute for Health were delighted to support Alex in being able to attend this conference recognising the importance of this conference for Alex as he approaches the end of his PhD. Before attending, Alex was delighted to receive the news that his abstract entitled ‘The effects of pulmonary rehabilitation on blood neutrophil activation and functional subsets in COPD’ had been accepted for presentation during a Poster Discussion session. Alex’s abstract was also awarded an ATS abstract scholarship recognising the quality of the work submitted!
Since his return, Alex has highlighted how beneficial this conference was for him enabling him to build upon his network of contacts in the field of pulmonary rehabilitation. Furthermore, Alex received positive critical feedback on his research during his presentation which he will be utilising to better the outputs of his current work. Alex also felt the experience of presenting at a prestigious international conference was invaluable for his personal development.
Alex also utilised the new ‘Mentor-Mentee’ scheme during the conference and was fortunate enough to be paired with Dr Chris Burtin from Hasselt, Belgium. Chris helped Alex throughout the conference and provided Alex with some beneficial advice as he assesses options for the post-PhD world. Chris is currently supporting Alex with a fellowship application and they are assessing the opportunities to setup a collaboration in the coming months.
All in all, this was a fantastic experience for Alex who was quick to show his appreciation to the Physiological Society & Santander Universities for financially supporting his attendance at the ATS conference.
