• Question: what inspired you to go into your area of study?

    Asked by Hannah to Alex, Laura, Lesley, Richard, vediacan on 12 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by 288prmc56, 505prmc56.
    • Photo: Richard Prince

      Richard Prince answered on 12 Jun 2015:

      I did two industrial placements as part of my B.Sc. in Biochemistry and both of them were in the pharmaceutical industry. They were the experiences that turned me on to the process of turning chemicals into medicines. After I finished my B.Sc. I looked for a Ph.D. studentship in Pharmacology and found one studying how anaesthetics and drugs to treat anxiety work. The thing that attracted me to this studentship was that it was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company (Merck Sharp and Dohme) and I got to spend part of my three years of Ph.D. study working in their labs in Harlow.
      By the way: you will probably have noticed that almost everyone in this zone is either studying for a Ph.D. or has completed one. A Ph.D. is like an apprenticeship in science. You spend three years working for a supervisor who is an expert in your field and at the end of it, you write a fat report called a thesis. You have to have the thesis looked at by two established scientists, one of which is an expert in your field, and then get grilled by them in an interview for a couple of hours. If you survive that, you pass and get to call yourself “Dr.”
      Best wishes
      Richard

    • Photo: Vedia Can

      Vedia Can answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hey Hannah,

      Hope you’re well!

      It was actually my Physiology lecturer; Dr Mark Kerrigan. As mentioned previously, I always wanted to carry out research in the field of arthritis, specifically Osteoarthritis but I was unsure on how to accomplish this. I was interviewing my lecturer for a Podcast, and he introduced me to “Chondrocytes” and Pharmacology 🙂

      Hope this answers your question!

      Best Wishes,

      Vedia

    • Photo: Alex Agyemang

      Alex Agyemang answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Hello Hannah,

      Thanks for your question.

      From my early years in school, I was always fascinated about medicines/drugs and how they work to make people feel better so this is where I gained my inspiration to study pharmacology at university.

      I hope this is helpful.

      Best wishes,
      Alex

    • Photo: Laura Newton

      Laura Newton answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Hey Hannah,

      I always liked biology and chemistry the best at school so I mashed them together and applied for biochemistry at uni. When I was at uni we had to do a long lab project in the final year. We could pick projects that sounded most interesting to us and I had always liked the lectures that were related to human health the most. I did my project working on new drugs for different viruses (mostly Hepatitis C) and that’s how I knew I wanted to do more research, so I applied for a PhD.

      The long research project was so much better than any of the short experiments I had done before then, in fact I was rather surprised I liked it so much!

      Thanks for your question!
      Laura

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