The elusive work/life balance
I’ve spoken about work life balance before and how I have to work hard to maintain it. Recently the issue of overworking in research science (and by all researchers, STEM or otherwise) has been brought up due to a recently published article on the Science website called “Getting noticed is half the battle”, it was […]
My first student
We often get undergraduate students coming into the lab to complete their final year projects. These students are assigned to an academic supervisor who then in turn will assign one of their PhD students or post-docs to be the students supervisor in the lab. Now that I’m in my second year I’ve been assigned my […]
This week in Science
This has been quite a week for science with Philae sucessfully landing on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. I like to think this is a week that will inspire a new generation of scientists and the coverage that Rosetta/Philae and the European Space Ageny have had is brilliant, however there are several other stories that have either stemmed from […]
When in … Siena
So I wrote in my last post about the opportunities you get as a PhD student and how your life is unlikely to ever be so flexible again, so I thought I would use this post to tell you all about one of the opportunities I’m currently making the most of. Right now I’m in […]
The Probation Review
This post comes to you from the deep dark depths of the first year report. OK that’s mildly dramatic, the process isn’t actually too bad at all. I’m >5,000 words down (of ~8,000) and I’ve finished my methods, results and discussion and have made a dent on the introduction. I was originally planning quite an […]
“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 […]
Preparing for my first year seminar
So on the 11th June (i.e. next week!) I have my first year seminar. I don’t think I can put into words the terror… The first year seminar is a requirement in the department of genetics to pass the probation review (see last weeks blog for a little about that). It’s a total of 25mins […]
GENIE outreach
Through my demonstrating I’ve got to know a lot more people within the department of genetics, both PhD students and academics, and this means that I come across more opportunities. Working on BS1005 and then BS1008 (blog post coming your way shortly) with Dr Cas Kramer I learnt that he is part of GENIE, GENIE is Leicester’s […]
What else do I need to do with my days?
So for anyone who hasn’t worked in a lab before I want to give you an insight into the daily/weekly routine you’re likely to encounter. You don’t just spend your days doing your research, there are other requirements as well. Generally your larger lab team (the people you share a lab with, not just your supervisors […]
Demonstrate your knowledge to me
One way to earn additional income as a PhD student is to do some demonstrating. For me this means helping out students in undergraduate labs. I’ve just completed my first stint on BS1005 – the first year genetics module. For 5 weeks I was assigned the same 20 students each week to help oversee their […]
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