Month: September 2018

Infectious Diseases and Immunity “The Bench and Beyond” Career Talks and Summer Party!

By Grace Birch and Kristin Krohn Huse, PhD students in Infectious Diseases and Immunity

On Thursday June 28th, the postgraduate representatives for the Section of Infectious Diseases and Immunity hosted a series of talks on careers entitled “The Bench and Beyond” followed by a summer party for the entire section, to celebrate the arrival of summer and provide a more laidback opportunity to network between research groups.

After identifying a lack of speakers in careers outside of traditional bench science at other career sessions, speakers with connections to the section from a wide variety of careers were invited to attend. Some of the speakers had previously completed their PhDs or Post Docs in the section of Infectious Diseases and Immunity or currently work within the section. The talks were well attended, including not just students from our own section but also some from outside the department as we decided to advertise the talks to all Department of Medicine postgraduate students. Feedback from students was very positive, and one of the speakers even remarked that they had learned something!

Talks were kicked off by Dr Mick Jones, Reader in Molecular Medicine and the current section cohort leader for IDI, who highlighted how sometimes a research career doesn’t always go to plan but works out in the end. Following that, Dr Katherine Fox described her work as a Policy Officer at the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the challenges of consulting on science policies in the current post-Brexit environment. Dr Zoe Seager explained her role as the Vaccines Programme Officer at the Wellcome Trust and emphasised the importance of embracing and making opportunities for yourself. Dr Debra Smith then took us on the journey of how her career brought her to work as Senior IP and Commercial Research Manager at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust. Finally, Dr Stephanie Ascough, who did her PhD in the section and has now returned by way of The Gambia and Pirbright, wrapped up the talks by stressing how it is essential to choose a job which allows you to maintain and pursue your own personal goals and values.

Following the talks, the entire section of Infectious Diseases and Immunity was invited for drinks and nibbles provided by the Graduate School Research Community Fund. Everyone always appreciates a chance to chat away from the lab coats and computers, especially as it had been nearly seven months since the last time we had an opportunity to come together like this.

We think the event was incredibly successful, and thank the Graduate School for their support. Hopefully section events such as this will continue to be held in the future!

Interdepartmental Laser Tag

 

The first Laser Tag event to connect PhD students from different departments, took place at the brand-new facility “Bunker 51” on Saturday 23rd of June. The aim of this initiative was to mix students with various research interests, to develop our research communities within Imperial and foster collaborations inter-departments.

This Laser Tag event, was an icebreaking way of encouraging PhD attendants to work together in a series of mini games played with guns which fired infrared beams. After the team building event, a picnic hangout with pizzas and drinks in Greenwich Park offered a more relaxed ambiance for students to get to know more about each other and their projects.

The whole day was a great success, with a high turnout of 22 PhDs from departments such as: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Bioengineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering or Medicine.

Everyone had an amazing time, and were very grateful to meet other students and share their PhD experiences so far. They also liked the idea of building teamwork and social skills with new people in such a fun way. All of them were looking forward for the next interdepartmental activity.

Cross-CDT Trip 2019 & World Cup Dinner

On 29th of June 9 CDT PhD students from 2 different CDTs left London for a 3 days trip to the countryside to explore West England.

On Friday morning all of us met at Heathrow airport at the Sixt car rental shop. After everyone arrived and after we got our cars we drove towards Bristol and then turned further left to reach a town called Tauton. There we bought some groceries and continued our journey to finally reached our end destination with was a small farm located between Taunton and Exeter.

Immediately the AirBnB owner welcomed us with her lively 3 dogs Bisket, Douglas and Holly. After playing a bit with the dogs which we decided to go for a walk and discover the area of where we would stay the next 3 days. One speciality about this place was that it was so far from any other bigger city or town that there was no internet and mobile connection at all. Everyone felt it as a relieve not being connected to the rest of the world which made us enjoy the beautiful nature even more.

When we returned to the house we prepared dinner where the more talented chefs amongst us prepared a delicious pasta for us. We spoke a lot played some card games and at night we enjoyed watching the full moon and the stars.

On Saturday the highlight of the day was that we took our cars to go to Wimbleball Lake. There we enjoyed the warm summer weather and borrowed some rowing boats to explore the lake. Furthermore, we managed to borrow a football and a tennis ball and played around with them on the grass. In the evening we prepared a BBQ and traditional Shakshuka which one of our friends knew very well how to cook it. We ended the second evening listening to music, playing some board and card games and exchanging other funny stories about our lives.

On Sunday we left the dorm quite early straight after breakfast to drive to a nearby castle called “Dunster Castle”. Although it started raining a bit we found joy in discovering and exploring a medieval town with its watermill, church, a beautiful garden and also the tiny houses and narrow streets. After that we continued with our cars to go to the coastal region in the north to a small city called “Weston-Super Mare”. There we enjoyed the sandy beach and also the mud which was left over due to the ebb of the sea.Finally, we enjoyed a last lunch together after returning back to London.

Here we also want to take the opportunity to thank the Graduate School for their financial support for this really joyful Cross-CDT Trip.

Here some impressions from our Journey

Cross-CDT World-Cup Dinner

To celebrate the end of the term and to also exchange our football knowledge 10 CDT-PhD students from 2 different CDTs met up at a bar to watch the game Argentina against France.

It has been a quite long time that some of us have seen each other and therefore this reunion was very enjoyable by also hearing about the lives of our former MRes colleagues. The world-cup game of the day was France against Argentina. After discussing our bets on who is more likely to win the game and who we thought would score first the game started. While watching we enjoyed our dinner at the bar which was also very delicious, and which made the whole reunion experience even more enjoyable. The football-game was very exciting because throughout the match both teams were showing their best and most creative moves and strategic brilliance. Finally France ended up winning against Argentina 4:3. Since most of us were supporting France we were very relieved about this outcome and discussed the game in more detail also after the referee finished the game.

Here we also want to take the opportunity to thank the Graduate School for their financial support for this very nice reunion at the Cross-CDT World-Cup Dinner.