Blog posts

A Typical (not so typical) Week of a PhD Student.

Alright.. It is my turn to write my first blog ever! I don’t really know what should I write about so I decided to bore you with a week of my life as a STRATiGRAD student.. First of all, my name is Munirah, proud Saudi citizen.. I’ve been part of Imperial since Sep 2012 where I did my MRs degree, then I got this amazing opportunity to join the STRATiGRADs starting from Nov 2013..

Let’s get started:

1.    Clinical Trial, Friday 14th Feb.

I needed to recruit healthy volunteers as control group for my study (liver cancer biomarkers). We started preparing for it more than a month in advance, we needed 3 people to prepare all the logistics, forms, recruit and contact participants, etc.

Study, Food, Picture,…what else?

Hello…it has eventually come to my turn to write the weekly STRATiGRAD blog. To be honest, you will have to bear with me as I don’t blog but I will try my best!

I am Jutarop Phetcharaburanin, one of the first year STRATiGRAD students at the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. My PhD project focuses on the effect of bariatric (weight-loss) surgery on changes in gut microbiota and signalling molecules along with the impact of endotoxins on long-term cancer risks in post-bariatric surgery patients. I am considered “an absolute newcomer’ to the cutting-edge subject known as metabonimics over here.

Monday Love

Hello everyone, Once again, it’s a Monday! Weekends tend to pass by so quickly in busy London, especially when there have been hints of sun (Vitamin D calling)! Even though, it’s not just the days that are nice in this amazing city! By the way, I’m Sofia, one of the ‘’junior’’ STRATiGRADs! My project will be on carbohydrates, specifically the ones undergoing fermentation and their effect on blood glucose and insulin resistance combining work between South Kensington and the nutrition unit at Hammersmith Hospital. As time goes by, days are getting busier here and Imperial is getting more interesting. Getting to know the people you are working with is even more.

MSI

Last time that I was reading this blog was before going to the interview for STRATiGRAD PhD. At that time, it gave me a good feeling about how 2012 cohort was doing. It was a wish to be a part of this amazing postgraduate training programme which came true for me otherwise I had no chance writing here. It is a fantastic programme since doing a PhD in many cases said to be an individual journey but here there is 9 of us; catching same deadlines and doing similar staffs. Another cool fact is despite all my other grades which I was in minority (few girls) here we are 7 (cool, brilliant) girls and 2 boys.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I do hope that everyone in the North Pole is doing great! I am afraid it’s this time of the year again that we need to discuss about my presents. Before that please allow me to briefly present some of the aspects of my life. Yeeeeees Santa, I know that you don’t have time for that, blah, blah…. I promise it won’t take long! So make yourself a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows and sit comfortably.

You are probably aware that I am still in London and I am doing much better than last year as I have made lots of new friends.

Oh procrastination…my old friend…

Hello! I’m Kayleigh, one of the new StratiGrad PhD students at Imperial and this is my first post… You’ll have to bear with me as I don’t blog, barely tweet and have only just set up a LinkedIn account. But that’s ok because ‘I wanted a challenge’…she said! I have ventured back into the world of academia after spending three amazing years training to be a Clinical Biochemist at Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospital.

I’ve signed up for a three year PhD on the StratiGrad programme trying to identify novel biomarkers of ovarian cancer! That’s the broad title anyway, and I will split my time between a group at the IRDB, that’s Institute of Reproductive Biology at Hammersmith Hospital and here in the CSM – Section of Computational and Systems Medicine at South Kensington.

Untitled

This week we (the new students) have all been busy writing our research plan so I’m going to talk about the start of this amazing experience in my new life rather than any more scientific thoughts. I’m not very good at this but let’s see what is going to happen.

6 months ago I remember being in Portugal thinking what could I do to continue my education and progress in my life. I concluded that if I want to do something I had to go out of my Portugal and continue my future outside the country. That idea in the beginning seemed to be exciting, new experiences, a new start!

Settling in

It’s amazing how long it takes. We’ve been at Imperial for 7 (almost 8) weeks now and we’ve only just more or less settled in. Not that we all have a desk or know what we’re doing all of the time (certainly, I don’t). But I get lost on campus less and less frequently, and when someone sends an email through the mailing list, I usually know who they are. We’ve got most of the initial administrative hurdles behind us (registration, induction courses, safety courses etc.), but the first major obstacle, our research plan combined with a presentation at the funders’ meeting, is still ahead of us.

New guys in town

As one of the new STRATiGRAD students, now I have the privilege to contribute to this blog and leave my everlasting (well, not so much) mark on Imperial’s website !

Last month was mostly about settling in (moving into an unfurnished flat is pain in the .. IKEA), sorting out a bunch of administrative stuff, and trying to schedule meetings with my supervisor to clarify my project. Some say having a great title is half the battle, but I say it’s just 2 bloody lines of a 10 page long research proposal.  Btw my project’s title is “Integration and visualization of clinical-metabolic datasets for medical-decision making”, fancy right?

Broadening Horizons.

A PhD in metabonomics would be a steep learning curve for anyone. So while plenty of time is spent attempting to get to grip with the fundamentals of this multi-discipline science – one must also try and find that all important balance. After all, and ever since I can remember, haven’t our seniors been banging on about communal engagement and extracurricular involvement… You know, becoming that rounded, exemplar individual – ultimately making the most of opportunities (how big or small these may be).

Imperial is initially quite good at this, for example, throughout the first year, we’ve had to attend numerous personal development workshops.