Benjamin Bréant Wins Best Academic Poster

Congratulations to Pembroke College DPhil student, Benjamin Bréant, for winning the ‘Best Academic Poster’ prize from the Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Oxford. Ben, a former president of the College’s MCR, also presented his poster at the World Sleep Congress in Rome earlier this year.

We asked Ben to share his experience as a postgraduate at Pembroke and his activities in the MCR:

“I joined Pembroke College in 2019 for a DPhil in Interdisciplinary Biosciences. I am lucky enough to study sleep, so I can nap anywhere in College and pretend I am working. At the start of my time here I lived on site and would use the MCR as my living room. The events organised by the graduate community were of rare quality and immediately made me feel at home. Pembroke gave me space to rest, but also space to grow. 

A typical day starts in College with a Farthings breakfast. It is an excellent chance to catch up with my friends and it gives me enough courage (and caffeine) to face the day, before I head off to my department where I spend most of the day. I have a comfortable desk there, as well as access to my lab where I try to unravel the mysteries of vigilance states. After work I make my way to the MCR to see some friendly faces and, probably, to get ready for an exchange dinner we have organised for that night.

Pembroke has given me many opportunities: as an international student in Oxford I was keen to join the boat club in my first year, but I also joined the MCR committee where I organised dinners, banquets, parties, symposiums, talks, rambles and more! And even with all that, being part of College still allowed me the time, space and support to reach the academic goals I set for myself.”

Follow Ben on Twitter here for updates about his research and DPhil journey. The full poster can be seen next to Ben below: