#MeetThePhD
The idea behind this is to showcase
PhD students, give a bit of an idea of what’s going on out there in PhDland,
and show to the world what PhD life is like! Perhaps they are thinking of doing
a PhD themselves, or just generally want to know more about it. Or they’re
already doing a PhD and want to see that they’re not alone in their struggles
or successes!
While Friendly Bacteria is a vaguely
microbiology-themed blog, for this series of mini-interviews I’m wanting any
PhD student no matter the field! I think it will be a fun way to connect with
other PhD students we wouldn’t normally be able to get to know, too.
If you’re a PhD student and want to
get involved with this, leave a comment here, send me a DM on Twitter (
@friendlybugblog ) or shine the Bacteria-signal into the skies above
Aberystwyth and I’ll send you the questions!
Previous ones are
here: http://friendlybacteriablog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/meetthephd
Today we have Sam Rowe, using bacteria to tackle the fuel crisis in his PhD! Tweets to @samfrowe (or @friendlybugblog if you want me)
Tell me about yourself.
My name’s Sam Rowe and I’m a 4th
year PhD student at the University of East Anglia. I grew up just outside
Norwich, went away to London for my MSci degree then came back closer to home
for my PhD. I’m based in the School of Chemistry (and will always be a chemist
at heart) but have spent the majority of my project working with bacteria and
proteins. Away from lab I spend my time learning the piano, going to the cinema
and reading as many books as I can. I’m also lucky to be part of a really
social research group so get to try out all the pubs and restaurants which
Norwich has to offer during our lab outings J You can find me tweeting about life and science @samfrowe.
What's your project all about?
In my PhD I’m developing new ways to turn sunlight into
chemicals and fuels using bacteria. I work with a bacterium called Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 (which is a
bit of a mouthful!). It’s also known as an electric
bacterium and there’s a great introduction to these microbes here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20160613-there-are-microbes-that-eat-and-poo-nothing-but-electricity.
I grow the bacteria in the lab, mix them with light-absorbing chemicals then
shine a light on them to see if they make the products we want.
The project stems from the fact that fossil reserves (like
coal and oil) will eventually run out so we want to harness the near-infinite
supply of energy from the sun. My favourite fact is that the sun provides the
Earth with as much energy every hour
as human civilisation uses over an entire year! So we know there’s a lot of
energy available but the challenge is to capture it and turn it into something
useful.
How's that working out so far?
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my PhD and can’t believe that
I’m now in my final year! At the start of January, I decided to stop experiments
and begin writing up (which has been really nice). What stresses me out the
most is not knowing whether I have enough data so it’s been great to stand back
and look over what I’ve done over the past 3 years. Luckily my results are
coming together to give a semi-coherent story. The plan is to complete a full
thesis draft by the end of April, perform a few more experiments in May and June
then review and finalise everything I’ve written to submit by July or August.
What are the three best things about
your PhD so far?
1. I love the flexibility. As long as I’m getting work
done, my supervisor is happy for me to take holiday when I want, attend
conferences (I recently got the chance to present a poster in Rome!) and get
involved with volunteering and outreach.
2. Last year I was lucky enough to get an award for
a talk I did about my research (during our annual research colloquium). I’m always
nervous before presentations so it was great to know that I can communicate my
science clearly.
3. My PhD is part of a Doctoral Training
Partnership meaning that I was able to do a 3-month internship at the end of
my 2nd year. My placement was with a forensics company in Cambridge and
it really helped me understand the wider benefits of a PhD in terms of
transferable skills and career prospects.
And the three worst things?
1. I found things difficult in my 1st
year because I had never worked with bacteria before (so spent most of my time making
silly mistakes). Everyone in lab was really helpful and patient with me though
so I got to grips with things eventually.
2. It’s never nice when pieces of equipment break especially
if it could have been prevented. I spent ages (about 6 months overall!) getting
a gas chromatograph fixed after it had been repeatedly mistreated by other
students. Fortunately, I had other experiments to do in the meantime but it
still felt like such a waste of time and energy.
3. It’s always hard to deal with failed experiments
and it’s particularly annoying when the experiment has worked before. It’s
important to realise that not everything will work perfectly first time (and even
if it does, you’ll probably have to repeat it to convince everyone that it
wasn’t a fluke).
If you could go back and do something
differently, what would it be? Why?
I worked loads of weekends in the
first 2 years of my PhD to get results as quickly as possible. I was lucky and
the hard work paid off meaning the end of my PhD has been relatively relaxed.
However, I wish I had taken it easier when I started and spread my work out evenly
over the 4 years to achieve a more sensible work-life balance. I also should
have done more volunteering and outreach (and made a Twitter account!) earlier
on because I really enjoy it and it’s such an important complement to the lab
work.
What advice would you give to someone
thinking about doing a PhD?
Take some time to research the PhD you’re applying for and
bear in mind that the length of funding, the wider training on offer and the
internship opportunities vary from place to place. If possible, arrange a
meeting with your potential supervisor and ask as much as you can about typical
working hours, the different lab techniques you’ll be expected to master,
frequency of one-to-one meetings and lab space. Speaking with other students in
the group will also give you an excellent idea about what life would be like
working there. I definitely recommend doing a PhD if you find a subject you’re
passionate about and a research group you feel comfortable in.
What's the plan after you finish?
A tough question but something I need to think about before
my funding runs out! The truthful answer is that I really don’t know. I love
science but I’m not particularly bothered about working in a lab. I need to
decide whether another few years as a postdoc is a worthwhile compromise to then try launching my own research group and/or becoming a lecturer (although there’s no
guarantee this will happen based on how competitive these positions are).
Otherwise I’ll be looking for jobs in industry, science communication or
government.
Any further thoughts/comments?
I think it’s great that you use your blog to write about the
importance of mental wellbeing. During a PhD it’s so easy to focus on getting
results and forget about looking after ourselves. Hopefully the more
transparent we are about these issues, and the more we lobby for change, the
better universities will be at supporting us within academia!
Also, thanks for the chance to chat about my PhD
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