By Bella Rowell, 1st Year PhD student
A new academic year means new students! The new cohort of PhD students now has a term under their belt and are settling into PhD life. It was a busy start to the year for many of us, with lots of new information to take in, but it’s been a great few months in a warmly welcoming DTP.
I’m Bella, a first year PhD student in Earth Sciences, studying palaeoclimatology. I’ve taken on management of the DTP blog alongside my studies as a way to inform readers about what’s going on throughout the DTP and to give some insight into what being a PhD student really entails! Although I’m not directly funded by the DTP, I’ve been able to take advantage of its opportunities as part of the NERC-associated cohort. The DTP allows many students to engage with it and really benefit from what it has to offer.
The NERC Doctoral Training Partnership provides training for environmental science research and covers three broad research areas: Solid Earth and Geological Hazards, Climate Change and Environmental Processes and Biology and Conservation. Within Cambridge, students are placed in a number of departments and locations: Earth Sciences, the British Antarctic Survey, Scott Polar Research Institute, Plant Sciences, Zoology, Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Geography and Chemistry. This means that the DTP is fundamentally multidisciplinary. As well as providing training, it allows valuable insight into research going on in related fields in academia and further afield.
In November, over 20 new students descended on Churchill College for a 2-day training course aimed at getting us acquainted with some of Cambridge’s many quirks and what we can hope to achieve during our time here.
Day 1
It kicked off with a workshop on “transferable skills” – those things we hear so much about yet to which we mostly turn a blind eye! As it turns out, they’re pretty important and will likely help us get a job in the future. It’s a phrase that will crop up not just throughout the training course, but throughout our PhDs and careers and we’ve now had it firmly drilled in that time spent investing in personal development is time well spent. As researchers, it can be difficult to pick up on times when we are developing key skills like communication, resilience and leadership, as we tend to be focused on our scientific skill set. It’s important, then, for us to be able to self-evaluate and reflect on our progress in other areas.
After a caffeine-hit, it was back to work with a series of talks on statistics, literature review skills and “what makes a good environmental scientist?”. These are skills we tend to be more familiar with, yet which are essential for producing good science.
Lunch – a highlight in most students’ days – was a hit.
The afternoon covered a talk on science outreach, engagement and impact, subjects which have been at the forefront of research in recent years. As scientists we should think carefully about the importance of our research and communicating it in the most appropriate way to the general public, to policy makers and to each other. Our research is obviously incredibly important to ourselves, however the impact of it is not always immediately apparent to everyone else and its our job to communicate this.
An enormously useful, and somewhat stress-relieving, part of the day was the chance to speak to current PhD students. We were able to ask all the questions we wouldn’t dare ask our supervisors and were given honest, frank advice by our peers, who have been through exactly what we’re about to face. They covered everything from mental health concerns, to practical tips for getting things done and how to cope when – yes, when – things inevitably go wrong! This was a fantastic opportunity and everyone took full advantage of it. Rounding off the day nicely, evening drinks and dinner gave us all a chance to chat and get to know those we hadn’t already met.
- Obligatory photo shoot for the new DTP cohort in the (briefly) sunny Churchill College grounds.
Day 2
Day 2 of the course focused mainly on communication, specifically, presenting and communicating science. The morning was led by Professor Lloyd Peck from the British Antarctic Survey, who gave a communication workshop. He spoke about his work at BAS and we discussed the dos and don’ts of scientific presentations. Then it was the volunteers’ turns – if only they’d known what they were really in for! Four volunteers gave their short talks to a small group, and then to the whole cohort. Lloyd gave each brave soul individual feedback and discussed their strengths and weaknesses, in some cases demanding re-takes with grueling persistence. I can personally vouch that this was incredibly helpful and although nerve-racking, very rewarding. Everyone came away with tips to help them communicate their work more effectively and in a more engaging way.
We were given some tips and advice for data management, including an introduction to Data Tree, an online resource. Any science deals with vast amounts of data so it’s something I’m sure we’ll all be dipping into, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Finally, the course was wrapped up with student presentations. It was a little less intense than the morning’s workshop, and instead gave us the opportunity to see the broad array of work that people are producing. It really reminded us all how much work there is going on here in the University and further afield and the countless ways in which it can impact the scientific community and the general public in years to come.
Overall the course was well-received and gave us useful insight into what to expect, what help is available to us and how to improve as researchers. We left feeling motivated and ready to engage with our time here to the fullest. Well, after one last cup of coffee…