The Brilliant Club Update
I’ve written about the Brilliant Club before in a couple of different posts, you can find them here and here, so I thought I would post an update now that the spring placements have arrived. My first placement with the Brilliant Club, working with Yr12 students last summer, was daunting but massively rewarding, and I knew that I was […]

Training courses
We all have our demons, and one of mine is stats. Stat’s is not my strong point and I was criticised for the lack of statitical analysis included in my probation report at the end of my first year. I actually think this is quite a good thing, I wasn’t criticised for any of the fundamental […]
Improving the probation process
I think it’s important for everyone to know that the Graduate School are constantly re-evaluating things with the aim of improving the PhD process. How do I know? I know because I recently went to a meeting with Brett from the Graduate School and about 10 other PhD students who have just completed the first […]
“No I don’t have a Masters”
It’s pretty normal to be asked as a PhD student where you did your Masters degree. I however didn’t do one, and this seems to come as a shock to most people (probably because a lot of the people asking are Master’s students), but no I didn’t do one. So how am I here in […]
A really busy non-PhD week
This week I feel like I’ve done so much, but I don’t really have anything to show for it if we’re talking about lab results. Don’t worry I haven’t just caved in and given up on PhD work, I’ve just had A LOT of other work this week! So to give you a quick run […]

Genomes 2014
As I mentioned in my last post I attended my first large scientific conference last week. This was “Microbiology after the genomics revolution: Genomes 2014″ and was held at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. It was a big event with ~500 people attending and there was a lot to see, do and learn. We began our […]
Thesis forum
I have wet shoes, I have wet shoes because I’ve just come back from the library and the weather today is very British. So the library, it’s not a place I go often, but today there was a thesis forum. This is a little get together, normally arranged by the lovely Helen Steele from the […]
Brilliant Club training weekend
Honestly, right now, I’m exhausted. Lab work is intense, my list of jobs to complete keeps growing, my first year seminar is less than a month away and I spent all of last weekend at a training event for the Brilliant Club (post about why here). I’m really excited about the Brilliant Club, although a little terrified about actually teaching […]

I’m going to be a Brilliant Club tutor!
This has been a week filled with extra activities, on top of my normal working week I’ve had two trips to A&E (not for me!), one assessment centre, one careers in journalism event (a separate post coming soon) and one very busy Saturday buying crutches and knee braces while also preparing a course for year […]
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