Chemistry PhD student, Filip Aniés, was awarded a Geoffrey Wilkinson Prize Studentship in 2018 to pursue postgraduate research under the joint supervision of Professors Martin Heeney and John de Mello. To mark the centenary of Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson’s birth this year, Filip has written reflections on his PhD experiences so far, and on the impact that the studentship has had on his research and career. He also gives some tips on applying for PhD study.
Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, born on 14 July 1921, completed his PhD at Imperial in 1946, was Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Imperial from 1956-96, and was awarded the 1973 Chemistry Nobel Prize. The Wilkinson Charitable Foundation generously supports an Imperial PhD studentship in his memory.
By Filip Aniés
My journey to PhD study at Imperial
In a way, my journey to becoming a chemistry researcher started in October 2014, as I arrived from Sweden to undertake undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Imperial. With no personal contacts at Imperial – or at all in the UK – it was a big step to take, but I was excited about the idea of studying abroad, as well as the opportunity to join a university with a great reputation for research quality, and a department with a solid history as a contributor to chemical science. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I always found it particularly inspiring to come across facts and examples in various lecture courses or textbooks which had been discovered in the very department that I was part of! Not the least, of course, Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson’s discoveries, which popped up on multiple occasions, such as in the context of organometallic chemistry. (more…)
