I have really enjoyed my time at the University of Southampton, I have made loads of connections within the department that I’m sure will become useful in my future career. My time here has highlighted to me the vast number of opportunities available to scholars, including travelling to overseas conferences, working in labs in other countries and meeting people from all over the world. In just the few short weeks I have been here I have seen people jetting off to Easter Island, Chile, Germany, France, Iceland, Australia, and many other places.
I have been working in an office environment amongst PhD students, post-docs and summer students and find it to be a really sociable atmosphere, and have learnt a lot from just being here. The people in my office – Rob, Georgios, Boon, Aarran and Amy – have been particularly nice, helping me fix my coding and giving impromptu lectures to help me understand things.
I love that being here I have experienced first hand what it is like to learn for a living and I’m now certain it is what I would like to do.
I have spent my time here in the astronomy department with the supernovae group, working on a broad research project on objects known as type 1a supernovae, which involved completing 2 online courses in coding. As well as gaining an insight into the day to day working of a research office, I’ve learnt so much about real physics and it’s application to our universe. Alongside this we frequently have philosophical debates and I have started to develop a much more critical way of thinking. Whilst at the university I have also been getting involved in things like “Journal Club” where new papers are discussed, “Group Discussion” where we take a break form the computers and discuss recent developments and new ideas, I have also been attending morning coffee breaks with other people from the department to meet as many new people as possible.
Thanks to my new links at the university I will hear about events that are happening both public and amongst the researchers and have no doubt that I will see these people again in the future.