After a hiatus, we are ecstatic to bring back the LGBTQ+ STEMinar this 6th of November 2026 to be held in person at Queen Mary University of London.

After a pause for the STEMinar, we are back! Please join us for a day of great lectures and posters.

The conference is designed for people who work or study in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and identify as LGBTQ+. We aim to use the day to showcase work from diverse fields and to encourage collaborations between different departments, Universities, companies and subjects. We also welcome those who may not identify as LGBT but wish to discover and support the work that LGBTQ+ people are doing.

Our plenary speakers for the LGBTQ+ STEMinar 2026 will be:

Alex is standing and smiling in a rain forest. He has a red backpack, blue t-shirt and his sunglasses are raised to be on top of his head.

Alex Bond (he/him)

Dr Alex Bond is the Principal Curator and Curator in Charge of Birds at the Natural History Museum, and co-lead of the Adrift Lab, a research collective that focuses on seabirds & marine plastics, and the conservation of island systems. An active researcher for more than 20 years, he has published 200 peer-reviewed articles, 9 book chapters, and 2 monographs as well as a children’s book about bird diversity. Since 2005, he has been fortunate enough to study and conserve birds in Canada, Alaska, Australia, Tristan da Cunha, the Pitcairn Islands, and elsewhere (as well as unexpectedly swim in four of the world’s five oceanic basins). As former chair of LGBTQ+STEM and passionate advocate for making a better place for marginalized scientists, he was awarded the 2020 Royal Society Athena Prize and the 2022 BTO Marsh Award for Ornithology. Since 2014, he has lived in the UK with his husband, Jeremy.

A picture of Priya Silverstein in a hilly background wearing blue glasses, a blue knitted cap, and a maroon and mustard hoodie. Priya is smiling.

Priya Silverstein (they/she)

Priya Silverstein is an Assistant Researcher on the EXCELScIOR project at the University of Coimbra. After completing their PhD in developmental psychology at Lancaster University in the UK, Priya held a series of remote research positions in metascience (science of science), working at the Journal Editors Discussion Interface, the Center for Open Science, and the Psychological Science Accelerator. In 2025, Priya moved to Coimbra, Portugal, with their husband and two cats, Butter and Nut. Their work falls into two main themes: research credibility (including replicability, reproducibility, and generalisability), and open science uptake (by students, researchers, and journal editors). They were the president of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science in 2025, and are currently the Associate Director of the Journal Editors Discussion Interface, an online community for journal editors across the social sciences aiming to increase the uptake of open science policies at journals. In their spare time, Priya experiences queer joy through hiking, yoga, and cooking.

Contributed Speakers

Victor Drummond, Care, Safety, and Trust: Rethinking AI in Community Health
Hope Duncan, A crash course in large cardinals
Charles Eldrid, Dehydrins: Who Needs Water to Anyway?
Dori Grijseels, Mole-rat chit-chat: the role of vocal communication in African mole-rats
James Kavanagh (TBC), TOGETHER cancer study - investigating cancer incidence, mortality and healthcare utilisation in trans communities
Shaun Keegan, Weighting serotype prevalence by mortality burden: implications for Klebsiella pneumoniae vaccine antigen priorities in Africa and South Asia
Kate Mowbray, Particle energisation in collapsing magnetic trap models for solar flares
Greg Slabaugh, Steering Generative AI: Towards Safer, Fairer and More Controllable Models
Sara Wren Sorkhabi, Adaptation to Altitude in Andean Butterflies: A natural replay experiment
Leonel Cardozo de Menezes e Souza (TBC), Dynamic regulation of basement membrane mechanics during Drosophila development
Jacqueline Taylor, Beyond the Vineyard: An Investigation into the Ecology of a Grapevine Pathogen
Catherine Tonry, Numerical Modelling of Ultrasonic Treatment in Metallurgical Processes

Full schedule to come. Registration on the day will start at 9am. The event will take place on the Mile End campus of QMUL, mainly in the People's Palace (building 15 on this map).

Registration

If you would like to attend the LGBTQ+ STEMinar, please register your participation by filling out this form.

Please note that all attendees must register and will be expected to abide by the LGBTQ+ STEMinar Code of Conduct.

Deadline:

The deadline to register for conference participation is 6 October 2026.

Organisational Team

The QMUL organisational team for the LGBTQ+ STEMinar 2026 is:

Ioanna Bechlivanidi (School of Biological and Behavioral Sciences)
Alex Fink (School of Mathematical Sciences)
Claudia Garetto (School of Mathematical Sciences)
Tyler Kelly (School of Mathematical Sciences)
Nadine Lavan (School of Biological and Behavioral Sciences)
Anthony Phillips (School of Physical and Chemical Sciences)
Charalampos Saitis (School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences)
Stefaan Verbruggen (School of Engineering and Material Sciences)

Questions / Contact?

If you have any questions or special requests regarding attending, please contact Ioanna Bechlivanidi and Nadine Lavan via the email address se-lgbtq-steminar@qmul.ac.uk.

If you would like to sponsor the event, please contact Tyler Kelly.

If you have any questions about contributed talks or the poster session, please contact Stefaan Verbruggen.

For issues with this webpage, please contact Alex Fink.

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LGBTQ+ STEMinar 2026