Science in Health

The Science in Health programme has been running for many years and aims to inspire the next generation of talent in medicine, healthcare and science.

The programme comprises:

Public Lectures - open to all
Science in Health Live! - for Year 12 students
Work experience scheme - for Year 12 students
Life Sciences Challenge/Her Gwyddorau Bywyd - for Year 10 students

Public lectures

The public lecture series runs monthly between October and April in the form of free Zoom webinars.

The lectures attract a diverse audience, including members of the general public, secondary school students and professionals. The series aims to highlight areas of concern in healthcare and to present new research in science and health to the public.

Details of the latest series of lectures can be found below. Use the links provided to register, and you will be sent details of how to join the Zoom webinar. Past lectures can also be viewed via the links below.

SiH Public Lectures 2026 / 2027

Date and Time	Speaker	Title
Thursday 19th November 2026 19:00	Miss Jennifer Waterman, Cardiff University School of Medicine	The Evolution of Colorectal Surgery: Past, Present and Future Register Here	Join Colorectal Surgical Trainee and PhD student Jennifer Waterman for an engaging exploration of the remarkable transformation of colorectal surgery. From high-risk open operations to minimally invasive, technology-driven procedures, colorectal surgery has undergone significant advances over the last century. This lecture will explore why colorectal surgery is performed, the conditions it treats, and how surgical techniques have evolved to improve patient outcomes. We will look back at the history of colorectal surgery, examine modern approaches such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery, and consider future innovations that may shape the field. The lecture will also discuss the challenges that remain and the opportunities ahead for patients and surgeons alike.
Thursday 21st January 2027 19:00	Professor Derek Jones, Cardiff University School of Medicine	What If Everyone Could Have an MRI? Register Here	MRI is an extraordinary technology, but for much of the world, it remains inaccessible. So what if we stopped asking how to make MRI ever more powerful, and instead asked how to make it available to everyone? In this talk, I’ll explore our work to democratize MRI, using our developing programmes in Africa as an exemplar of what this could look like: low-field scanners, new approaches to imaging and analysis, local training, and partnerships designed to put MRI where it is actually needed. Along the way, I’ll ask whether less MRI might sometimes be more, and how advances in engineering, physics, computer science and AI can transform what we can measure, allowing us to study the biology of the brain in populations and places where this was previously impossible. Ultimately, democratizing MRI is not simply about making scanners more accessible. It is about opening up new opportunities to understand the human brain, and ensuring that geography and wealth no longer determine who gets to participate in that discovery.
Thursday 18th February 2027 19:00	Professor Nigel Williams, Cardiff University School of Medicine & Katherine Pearson, Our Future Health	Our Future Health in Wales: From Recruitment to Research Impact Register Here	Our Future Health is the UK’s largest health research programme, bringing together health information and biological samples from millions of volunteers to create a resource that can support research into the prevention, earlier detection and treatment of disease. This lecture will introduce Our Future Health, exploring the ambition behind the programme, the information and samples being collected from volunteers, and how these can be used alongside other health-related data to enable research at an unprecedented scale. The second part of the lecture will turn from recruitment to research, illustrating the potential of the Our Future Health resource through examples of studies using its data, alongside published research demonstrating what can be achieved with large-scale health datasets. Together, the speakers will consider how a resource of this scale and breadth can help researchers address important questions about health and disease, and the opportunities it may create for the research community in Wales and across the UK.

Date and Time

Speaker

Title

Thursday 19th November 2026

19:00

Miss Jennifer Waterman, Cardiff University School of Medicine

The Evolution of Colorectal Surgery: Past, Present and Future

Join Colorectal Surgical Trainee and PhD student Jennifer Waterman for an engaging exploration of the remarkable transformation of colorectal surgery. From high-risk open operations to minimally invasive, technology-driven procedures, colorectal surgery has undergone significant advances over the last century.

This lecture will explore why colorectal surgery is performed, the conditions it treats, and how surgical techniques have evolved to improve patient outcomes. We will look back at the history of colorectal surgery, examine modern approaches such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery, and consider future innovations that may shape the field. The lecture will also discuss the challenges that remain and the opportunities ahead for patients and surgeons alike.

Thursday
21st January 2027

19:00

Professor Derek Jones, Cardiff University School of Medicine

What If Everyone Could Have an MRI?

MRI is an extraordinary technology, but for much of the world, it remains inaccessible. So what if we stopped asking how to make MRI ever more powerful, and instead asked how to make it available to everyone?

In this talk, I’ll explore our work to democratize MRI, using our developing programmes in Africa as an exemplar of what this could look like: low-field scanners, new approaches to imaging and analysis, local training, and partnerships designed to put MRI where it is actually needed.

Along the way, I’ll ask whether less MRI might sometimes be more, and how advances in engineering, physics, computer science and AI can transform what we can measure, allowing us to study the biology of the brain in populations and places where this was previously impossible.
Ultimately, democratizing MRI is not simply about making scanners more accessible. It is about opening up new opportunities to understand the human brain, and ensuring that geography and wealth no longer determine who gets to participate in that discovery.

Thursday 18th February 2027

19:00

Professor Nigel Williams, Cardiff University School of Medicine & Katherine Pearson, Our Future Health

Our Future Health in Wales: From Recruitment to Research Impact

Our Future Health is the UK’s largest health research programme, bringing together health information and biological samples from millions of volunteers to create a resource that can support research into the prevention, earlier detection and treatment of disease.

This lecture will introduce Our Future Health, exploring the ambition behind the programme, the information and samples being collected from volunteers, and how these can be used alongside other health-related data to enable research at an unprecedented scale.

The second part of the lecture will turn from recruitment to research, illustrating the potential of the Our Future Health resource through examples of studies using its data, alongside published research demonstrating what can be achieved with large-scale health datasets. Together, the speakers will consider how a resource of this scale and breadth can help researchers address important questions about health and disease, and the opportunities it may create for the research community in Wales and across the UK.

Science in Health Live!

This event has been welcoming students to the School of Medicine at Cardiff University for over 30 years. It takes place at Wales’s largest teaching hospital during National Science and Engineering Week.

It is aimed at Year 12 students studying science and maths A-Levels and allows attendees to discover more about the latest internationally recognised science discoveries taking place, as well as finding out about the wide range of career opportunities available in the fields of science and healthcare.

Science in Health Live - 25th anniversary

Video of Science in Health LIVE 2019

Lab work experience

A coordinated and evolving programme of schemes to inspire Year 12 students who are interested in a science or medicine-related degree.

The students receive a general introduction to the week, including an outline of the nature of the work undertaken in the research laboratories.

The remainder of the week is set up so that the students have a range of experiences working in teams with a number of different investigators and their research groups.

The students have opportunities to experience cutting-edge technologies like molecular biology, flow cytometry, DNA sequencing, egg micro-injection, virology, mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, pharmacology and cellular immunology with research groups from across the school.

Importantly, the students have the chance of meeting PhD students and post-doctoral fellows, many of whom are in the early stages of their career. On the final afternoon, the students come together to describe what they have learnt from the week, and information is also provided on the UCAS application process.

Apply for lab work experience

Work Experience 2027 will take place from 28 June to 2 July.

Lab work experience application form

25 September 2026

Please complete the application form.

Download document (Word, 208.0 KB)

Request an accessible format

If this document cannot be read by your assistive software, you can request an accessible version by emailing web@cardiff.ac.uk. Please include the assistive tools you use and the format you require.

The closing date for applications is 30 April 2027

Please note that successful applicants will be expected to commit to attending the full week of experience from 09:00 to 16:30. Successful applicants will need to organise their own accommodation and travel, if required.

Life Sciences Challenge

An inter-school competition for Year 10 pupils consisting of a quiz designed and delivered by both PhD students and early career researchers (Postdoctoral Researchers and Junior Fellows).

These are individuals who are passionate about science and have chosen to dedicate their lives to scientific research. They want to share this enthusiasm for trying to understand the natural world with pupils in Wales.

We hope that by allowing pupils to meet young scientists working locally, we will inspire them to consider the possibilities of scientific careers.

Some of the questions will follow the National Curriculum, but others may require knowledge gained from further reading/investigation.

Importantly, some questions will test pupils’ ability to analyse data and apply logic and learned knowledge to unfamiliar concepts. Questions will be largely Biology and Chemistry-based, but could involve aspects of Physics and Geology where these pertain to understanding the living world.

How to enter

To enter a team (or several teams) in the preliminary online round, email medicengagement@cardiff.ac.uk. The closing date for entries is the end of January 2027.

For further information about any of these activities, contact:

Medic Engagement

medicengagement@cardiff.ac.uk

Science in Health