We’re very pleased to officially welcome our third cohort of students to the MFC CDT programme. The students recently participated in a two-week residential Kick-Off Camp, held at the University of Reading, from 7th – 17th September 2026. The camp was designed to give the students an introduction to the core courses & related areas of research as well as providing a valuable opportunity for the cohort to get to know each other in advance of starting their PhD journey with the MFC CDT.
Over the two weeks the students gained insights through lectures, seminars and training sessions delivered by in-house and invited experts.
Highlights included:
- Cohort Conclave: ice-breaker activities (Claire Newbold, UoR)
- Reproducibility & responsibility: a seminar on engineering trust in a time of scepticism about science (Dr. Etienne Roesch, UoR)
- Introductions to the core courses in: Numerical Maths (Dr. Hilary Weller, UoR), PDEs (Prof. Darryl Holm & Prof. Michele Coti-Zelati); Probability & Statistics (Dr. Adam Sykulski, ICL); Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (Dr. Remi Tailleux, UoR, & Dr. Oscar Martinez-Alvarado, UoR)
- Hands-on training/programming sessions on: Changepoint Detection (Dr. Euan McGonigle, UoS); Data Assimilation (Dr. Alison Fowler, UoR); Analysing Ocean Drifters (Dr. Adam Sykulski, ICL)
- Seminars:
- Ocean circulation & dynamics (Prof. Alberto Naveira Garabata, UoS)
- Geophysical fluid dynamics (Prof. David Ferreria, UoR)
- Forecast verification (Dr. Barbara Casati, ECCC)
- Climate science & data visualisation (Dr. Sam Burgess, ECMWF)
- Forecasting the weather by discretising PDEs (Dr. Tom Bendall, Met Office, and CDT alumni)
- A visit to the Natural History Museum incorporating:
- Talks on:
- Climate change and disease impact (Dr. Abi Smith, NHM)
- AI at the Museum (Dr. Arianna Salili-James, NHM)
- Museum tours
- A hackathon group challenge
- Talks on:
- Working group presentations to showcase the students’ learning from the two week programme.
Alongside the academic programme, the camp incorporated social events and networking opportunities to help students build connections within the cohort and the wider MFC CDT community.
The Kick-Off Camp provided a great opportunity for students to develop key skills, explore their research areas, and settle into life at the CDT. Here’s to a successful start for MFC CDT Cohort 2026!