Tag: Imperial College London Alumni

A celebration of Imperial geotechnics spanning six decades of researchers and staff

By Pishun Tantivangphaisal, Research Postgraduate, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

On 12th March we welcomed six decades of researchers and staff from the Imperial Geotechnics back to the Civil Engineering department building. With over 100 sign-ups, this highly anticipated event welcomed researchers spanning graduates from the 1970s all the way to current PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, administrative, technical, teaching and research staff. With a long legacy of pioneering research in the section, we felt it was important to maintain and foster links between current researchers with the giants on whose shoulders we now stand.

We showcased on-going research through poster presentations, caught up with our recently graduated friends and established new links with our distinguished alumni, many of whom now hold prominent positions in industry and academia.

The PhD can be about more than scientific research

By Adam Persing.

I am Chief Data Scientist at MRB Partners, a Manhattan-based advertising/tech start-up, where I discover and develop machine learning algorithms that drive the firm’s products. I graduated from Imperial in 2014 with a PhD in computational statistics.

The main purpose of a PhD program is to teach a student how to conduct scientific research, but it also cultivates a skillset that can prepare a student for a career outside of academia. I have found that some of the most valuable elements of that skillset are:

  1. Communication,
  2. Market research, and
  3. Self-management.

In the following blog post, I will discuss each point in some detail, highlighting how the skill was developed during my PhD and how I apply the skill today in industry.