| Personal details |
|---|
| Degree: | MSci (Hons) Maths and Stats |
|
| School(s): | School of Mathematics and Statistics |
| Year of Graduation: | Jun-2004 |
| LinkedIn: | |
| National of: | United Kingdom |
| Employment details |
|---|
| Organisation: | Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium |
| Job title: | Postdoctoral Researcher |
| Occupational Sector: | Academia |
| What has been your route to getting your current position? |
|---|
After completing my undergraduate masters I undertook an MRes
Conversion to Environmental Biology for physical scientists, which was
joint between St Andrews and Dundee University. After completing this
course I took a year out in order to work out what I wanted to do –
whether it was to work in industry or study for a PhD. I decided the
latter is what I needed to do, since I was unable to find employment in
my chosen field. I found a CASE EPSRC funded PhD studentship working
for Prof. Chaplain in the University of Dundee Mathematical Biology
group. I completed this PhD in Drug metabolism modelling in January
2011. I started my job at the VUB in February 2011.
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| What does your job involve ? |
|---|
My job entails researching Toxin-Antitoxin module dynamics using a
systems biology approach. Not much is known about the dynamics, so this
requires me to have regular meetings with both the physicists within my
department and the biologists at the VIB (Vlaams Instituut voor
Biotechnologie).
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| What are the best bits of your job ? |
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Sharing ideas and brainstorming with people from other scientific backgrounds.
|
| Why were you successful? |
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Two aspects were particularly useful:
- Having worked on a number of different projects during my education helped me to have a broad array of modeling techniques.
- The MRes course allowed me to gain experience in interacting with people from other scientific backgrounds on projects.
|
| What skills/ knowledge from your degree have you found particularly helpful in this role? |
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The broad array of modelling techniques I learnt while taking courses during my undergraduate.
|
| What advice would you give to students wishing to follow the same path? |
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Doing a PhD is not for everyone, since it is an emotional
rollercoaster. What I mean is that sometimes the research will be going
well and you will be happy about that but it can also go badly.
Research is all about being self-motivated and being able to take the
rough with the smooth.
As well as this – do not underestimate the value of taking time out from
your studies or doing something unrelated. It clears your mind and
will help you focus on what is important. For me my year out was an
eye-opener, since it allowed me to experience not studying day in day
out. I actually missed it and this is the reason why I started looking
for a PhD studentship.
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