What are you studying?

I'm in my final year of a Chemistry PhD in the Aerosol research group.

What do you particularly enjoy about postgraduate study in your department?
The people are great. I'm in a quite a large research group and it's very sociable. Everyone is really helpful with the work as well.

Why did you decide to apply for your programme?
I felt that having a PhD would be a good step forward in a science career, and I found this topic particularly interesting.

What are the facilities in your department like?
Very good. In the lab that I work in we have a lot of instruments and software that's built in-house for specific experiments, so we can get involved in instrument development too if we are interested in that. Also, for some of my work I've used the department Scanning Electron Microscope too and that is a really good facility.

How much support do you get from staff?
I meet my supervisor every week for a one-on-one meeting, which is really handy for checking I'm going in the right direction, but I do most of the work independently and there is freedom for me to come up with my own project plans. There's also always support from post-docs and from the more senior PhD students if we have questions or need advice.

How does postgraduate study differ from an undergraduate degree?
It's so much more independent. You'll probably do experiments that nobody has ever done before, which is very exciting, but it means that there might be ups and downs as you might not get the results you were initially expecting.

Is there anything you would want to tell a prospective postgraduate student considering studying Chemistry?

Take on the challenge! Take every opportunity presented to you - conference travel, collaborating with other research groups, presenting your work, side-projects etc. It all adds to the experience and is so rewarding.