Post by Lara Carter

A slightly late Happy New Year! 🎉 Kicking off 2026 with a big milestone in my PhD, I’m really pleased to share that I successfully passed my upgrade from MPhil to DPhil. It's so wonderful to reach this stage of the project, and I’m so excited for what comes next. A huge thank you to my supervision team, Dr Watjana Lilaonitkul, Professor Joseph Standing, and Dr Frank Kloprogge, for all of their continued support and guidance throughout the project. Thank you as well to Dr Kezhi Li for serving as my second examiner, alongside Professor Joseph Standing. I really enjoyed the discussion about my work and appreciate the time you took to read, watch, listen, and challenge my ideas. Looking forward to the next stages of the research, and lots more exciting things pending for 2026 that I can’t wait to share!