Travel award report – Participation at the Annual GIS Research UK Conference (GISRUK)
Since 2023, the St Leonard’s College Postgraduate Travel Awards scheme supports postgraduate students with any travel that would benefit their research and development. In 2025, it allowed Alistair McConnell, PhD student at the School of Geography, to attend the 33rd Annual GIS Research UK Conference (GISRUK) at the University of Bristol. Here is the full report:
The St Leonards Travel Award enabled me to attend the 33rd Annual GIS Research UK Conference (GISRUK) at the University of Bristol (April 23rd–25th, 2025) which was a valuable experience that exposed me to researchers in adjacent fields. My work focuses on the geospatial network analysis of dolphin movements in the Adriatic (in cooperation with Morigenos, the Slovenian Marine Mammal Society), and I tend to focus on the maths and the ecology without thinking about the broader geospatial applications – I had the opportunity to meet researchers working on demography, forestry, travel and infrastructure and various mapping and visualisation issues, all of which are have conceptual overlaps with my ecological networks. I also had the opportunity to take part in a mentorship scheme where I will be a mentee for the next two years with a professor from Leeds University whom I had the chance to spend some time with in Bristol, and will provide ad hoc career and development advice.
This was my first research conference as a PhD student and it was incredibly useful, I am very grateful to St Leonards College for the generous funding, and I am looking forward to presenting my research at the next one.