Case studies: PhD student: Rebecca Taylor

Rebecca has a BSc (Hons) Physiology with Industrial Experience from the University of Manchester and is undertaking a four-year British Heart Foundation sponsored PhD programme.

I graduated from The University of Manchester in 2010 with a BSc (Hons) Physiology with Industrial Experience. In between the second and final year of my course, I spent a year working at the pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca. During this time, I gained invaluable experience of what it is like to work in research, particularly in an industrial setting. I developed new laboratory skills, the ability to design my own experiments and critically analyse both my own and other people's work. In addition, I also learnt crucial presentation and communication skills. Spending a year working in industry really helped me to decide that I wanted to pursue a career in research, and it was this year in particular that inspired me to apply for a PhD.

I began searching for suitable PhDs at the beginning of the final year of my degree and decided to apply for a four-year British Heart Foundation sponsored PhD programme, which provided a first year similar to that of a research Masters. The first year consisted of three, three-month projects that were based in different labs, covered diverse topics and used a variety of techniques. Before commencing my PhD I knew vaguely which areas of physiology my interests lay in; however, it was still difficult to know precisely which specific topic I wanted to devote my next three years to studying. The four-year PhD programme enabled me to experience a variety of subjects within the cardiovascular field and to decide exactly which lab group I felt most comfortable working in, before I had to make a decision of which PhD project to choose. The first year of the programme also allowed me to learn a multitude of new techniques and enabled me to develop other essential skills such as scientific and critical writing and presentation skills.

My degree and the experience that I gained during it were extremely important in helping me to get where I am today. Both the theoretical and practical knowledge that I acquired during my four years at the University of Manchester were invaluable, and the time that I spent working in industry provided me with skills and experience that have undoubtedly added to my CV and helped me to secure a place on my current PhD programme. I also use many of these skills and the knowledge that I gained during my degree on a day-to-day basis working on my PhD project. Much of my time at work is spent in the lab conducting experiments, but I also spend time analysing the data that I have generated from experiments and also reading scientific papers.

I really enjoy working on my PhD project. I enjoy the lab work but also the challenge of trying to understand the meaning of results. Research does have its ups and downs and it can be tough as experiments often don't work or give the results that you may have been hoping for. However, when experiments do work, research can be very stimulating, and the concept of conducting novel research and contributing to greater understanding of human physiology is something that excites me very much.

AGCAS

Sourced by AGCAS editors

Date: 

September 2011

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