Alice Lester

About me:

I am a PhD student, funded by the collaboration between the University of Exeter and University of Queensland (QUEX Insitute), studying how habitual sleep duration and quality affects brain function, specifically cerebrovascular function, across the lifespan. This feeds on from work completed during my MSc by Research at Exeter where I studied how acute sleep restriction affected one specific aspect of cerebrovascular function.

I completed my undergraduate degree between 2016-2020 at the University of Bath in Sport and Exercise Science. This course offers the opportunity to undertake a one-year professional placement which I chose to complete as a research assistant at the Children's Health and Exercise Centre at the University of Exeter. During this placement I assisted with vascular function and exercise based research, both in an adolescent and adult population, as well as in the creation of an online video series discussing injury prevention in adolescent distance runners, in collaboration with England Athletics.

After finishing my degree, I completed a summer studentship funded by the Physiological Society, which provided me with the opportunity to publish my first, first author paper exploring the relationship between exercise and immune cell function.

• BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Studies with professional placement - First Class with Honours, University of Bath, 2020
• MSc by Research - Exploring the effects of acute partial sleep restriction and subsequent caffeine ingestion on neurovascular coupling and cognitive function - University of Exeter, 2023

• PhD student, University of Exeter (2023 - expected completion 2026)
• Project administrator within Research Services, University of Exeter (2022 - 2023)
• Postgraduate teaching assistant, University of Exeter (2021 - present)
• MSc by Res student, University of Exeter (2021 - 2023)
• Summer studentship funded by the Physiological Society (2020)
• Research assistant at the Children's Health and Exercise Centre, University of Exeter (2018-2019)
• Academic tutor, MyTutor (2018 - 2020)