My PhD Journey in 10 Photos
Given my love for visual stories and multiple unnecessary photos, I hereby succumb to a cheeky thought I’ve had for a while: to summarise the milestones of my entire PhD journey into 10 photos. A complete PhD thesis for the sciences at the University of Cambridge is equivalent to approximately 60,000 words but based on the famous saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, I’ll try to share the more fun highlights of the journey from day 1 to final day. Get on board for a visual, four-year PhD journey!
1. Arriving in Cambridge
In September 2016, I arrived in Cambridge very excited for the start of a long awaited journey. Cambridge is beautiful, especially in early Autumn. The days are still sunny but there’s a crisp wind as well. I wasted no time to check out the landmarks, including the famous Mathematical Bridge in Queen’s College, pictured below. A popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts. The guides on the punts will eagerly share various stories of past students and fellows of the University who attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together, but were unable to work out how to hold the structure together, and were obliged to resort to adding nuts and bolts.
2. Meeting my research group
The induction day at the Department of Materials Science started with an informal tea time with current students, post docs and professors of my research group: The Cambridge Center for Medical Materials. I was one of 6 new PhD students starting in the group. It was slightly daunting at first being the newbies, having to ask how to turn on a machine or which form is it again for risk assessment. Soon enough, after several extended tea times and lunch breaks, friendships blossomed (LOL). We have an annual group photo taken, where we look our best and pretend to be very civilised, but my favourite has to be last year’s ‘alternative photo’, pictured below. We decided to coordinate colours, and burgundy was the obvious choice, duh! I’ll definitely miss this bunch of weirdos!
3. Experiments and lab work
My PhD project was focused on improving diagnosis of back pain. The day to day lab work would entail the investigation of vertebral endplates, vertebrae and discs. Human spines are hard to come by, as expected, so I was told to source some sheep spines. As you do! I ended up making the trip to a village in Cambridgeshire, Melbourn, to collect my ‘prepped’ sheep spines from a family run butcher shop, as you can see in the next photo. It was a rather peculiar experience waiting in the queue, with people picking up nice lamb chops and beef for a roast while I asked for my sheep spines… The lady behind me was very confused and asked if this was for some sort of broth or soup!
4. Presenting at international conferences
I was super excited to be invited to present my work at my first international conference in Belgium, my debut on the big stage is shown below. I love conferences for multiple reasons, but mostly for the opportunity to discuss scientific findings and get peer reviews, but also for the paid “holiday”! During the 4 years, I got to visit Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan and fun spots in the UK such as Brighton. My advice, go to as many conferences as you can, it is so much fun!
5. Regular day in the department
On a regular weekday, I arrive at the department at around 9am (realistically 9:45am). I check my emails and make a to-do list for the day. At 10:15am we have our morning team time which can last from 15min to an hour, depending on the laziness level. Then I usually try to defrost some spines, do some lab work till lunch time at 12:30. Then comes the post lunch time lull, with a lot of scrolling on social media or just chilling and chatting, as you can see in the photo below. Productivity strikes again sometimes around 2pm until afternoon tea time at 3:30pm. Post tea time, it is usually time to set up analysis to run overnight and wrap up the day for 5:30-6pm.
6. Punting
Cambridge is known for its beautiful river, the River Cam (very imaginative name), swarmed with punters. Punting is a fun activity to do, especially in summer, with lots of snacks and spf. I love punting. Not the actual hardwork of making the boat move. I am more of a sit back and relax while others punt kinda gal. Sometimes, we just sit by the river, on the backs of St John college, and watch out for inexperienced punters falling into the filthy water or listen to the hilariously inventive stories of the guides on the hired punts. If you’re ever in Cambridge, I strongly recommend.
7. A trip to Japan
Although this falls under the category of conferences, I cannot not mention my trip to Japan. It was such a wonderful time! I was there for a conference in Kyoto, but also visited Nara and Osaka. Japan is such an interesting country, with a mix of an intricately beautiful culture and cutting edge technology. As childish as this will sound, the highlight of my trip was the day we spent at the Universal Studios in Osaka. More specifically, the Harry Potter World. They have a life size replica of Hogwarts, which is so photogenic as you can see, and it houses the world’s number one 4D ride. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! Definitely a very memorable part of the PhD…
8. My people
From first year, these 3 (Left to Right: Jamie, Matt, myself, Rob) have become my closest friends. We started our PhD together, and it is helpful to have people you can whine about the PhD to and complain about things that are not going as you wish they were. From the many unplanned McDonald’s trips to celebrating important life milestones, we have been through it all together. This photo was taken on the day of Matty’s wedding and although we might now not live in the same city, I know we’ll be friends for life and I am so grateful for the wonderful memories.
9. Thesis submission
As I have already went on and on about writing my thesis in lockdown, I will spare you. I’ve accompanied so many friends to the famous door to submit their thesis and get their handing in photo. I did not get to do that for myself. Sad. But my amazing friend LokYi photo-shopped my thesis and myself, so I kinda have my handing in photo. This marked a very big turning point in the PhD journey, back in May 2020. All the graphs were plotted ,all the analysis done, all the discussion points explained. It was all done. Well, at least for now.
10. Viva
Four months later, I was finally scheduled in for my viva , or what is commonly known as the defence of the thesis. This marked the end of the PhD journey. For now! I still have to make some minor amendments and then print out the beautiful leather bound thesis copies to be OFFICIALLY done! But I honestly will remember the details of this day for years to come, if not for the rest of my life. The four years flew by and suddenly it was all done. Anticlimactic because of the weirdness of the current circumstances but still a very big relief and if I say so myself, an achievement!
Cambridge, it has been awesome, thank you <3
