Lamprou Lab Blog

This summer I spent just over 7 weeks in Trinidad with a group of students carrying out zoology research for the University of Glasgow. It involved tracking some amazing frogs, working with turtles and their hatchlings, hill climbing in 35⁰C heat for water samples, and for myself in particular collecting many foam nests produced by frogs during mating. It was one of the most amazing trips of my life, with an incredible team, and has quickly converted me to love all things herpetology.  The main purpose of this trip was to collect samples, so I could continue work on studying the potential of foam produced by frogs for drug delivery systems, but I learned so much more and I think some of it is important to share. So here are my top 4 tips from my Trinidad trip:

https://80000hours.org/ 1. Your PhD is important but it shouldn’t define you! Everybody wants to have success in his or her career – there’s nothing wrong with that. However, sometimes you need to take a step back, and realize that there are more important things in life! Your health, your family and your mental well-being should always be of the utmost importance. The minute you deviate away from that is the minute you’re letting something take over your life that has so many variables you cannot control. Ambition knows no boundaries, but humans do. We have our limits, and pushing yourself beyond those limits is going to affect the route you take to success. Remember, Richard Branson is one the most successful, richest men in the world and he left school at the age of 16! 2. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself without constantly worrying about your work…

A PhD is wonderful experience! It is a great opportunity to meet new people, travel the world, build more skills and, ultimately, provide a better future for yourself and your family. While many students complete this experience without any difficulties, some students may find, on one or more occasions, they encounter stressful situations that can be difficult to deal with. If ignored, this can lead to greater problems, such as depression. Depression is a complex, yet surprisingly common, illness that can affect as many as 5 in 100 adults every year [ 1 ]. Despite these statistics, it can sometimes be difficult to diagnose. While some people experience more obvious symptoms such as low mood and general loss of pleasure in enjoyable activities, other symptoms such as disturbed sleep, changes in appetite and general agitation can also be an indication that something is wrong.  

Have you ever run experiments only to receive gigabytes of data that is hard to navigate, visualise or manipulate; and impossible to use with traditional programs like Excel?  Some simple programming could be the solution you’re looking for! My experience with programming began relatively recently when I found myself needing to process large numbers of atomic force microscopy (AFM) force curves yet unwilling to part with money for a program that seemed reasonably simple. After a week spent learning the basics of several common languages (e.g. Ruby , Javascript , Python and jQuery ) at Codecademy , I settled on Python to develop further. It seemed most appropriate since it made sense to me and had some statistical and graphical packages (pre-written functions) available. Codecademy is great for learning the basic concepts and, importantly, is free to use. However, the websites I looked at tended to overlook how to write and run the programs on your own computer....

This week marks the beginning of the ‘Engage with Strathclyde’ programme which consists of over 50 different events being held between the 5th and 8th of May. The events aim to highlight the innovative and collaborative approach maintained by the University of Strathclyde while also showcasing the fantastic research being carried out across all disciplines. Although the primary goal is to build and enhance relationships with organisations and industry, many events are also open for the public to enjoy as well. Last year’s events attracted over 2300 people to the university and its success was acknowledged upon achievement of the 2014 Times Higher Education Leadership and Management award for knowledge exchange / transfer initiative ( http://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/headline_832840_en.html) . The fantastic rteception received last year only adds to the buzz and excitement surrounding this year’s activities.

Last October, I had the opportunity to join the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) embedded within the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation ( CMAC ). As I am close to finishing my first year, I think it is a good idea to explain why it is really worth being four years PhD student in sunny Glasgow. When I joined, I didn’t have a clear idea about how DTC works, so I am going to introduce some of the differences between DTC program and a standard PhD.  *Best (funniest) Acronym of CMAC. Courtesy of Brucci Wareham     

Last October Ridade, a PhD visiting researcher from Purdue University (Indiana, USA), was working with us in CMAC at the University of Strathclyde as part of a recent collaboration network between both Universities. Ridade is currently working with a twin-screw granulator as the main processing equipment for her research, and he experience in this area introduced me to this new application. It was a great learning experience having someone from the other side of the world coming to share not just lab equipment and bench space but also personal experience and why not, fun in the lab! We spent long working hours that (of course) required long coffee breaks with all sort of good edible things such as tea cakes, muffins, biscuits, and many more! Not to miss, as well, occasional dinner breaks where take-away chips and soup were like the best thing since sliced bread. Of course not everything was lab work. We also had some free time to visit the lovely city of Edinburgh wher...

It is very important for a PhD student to meet different people, research groups, and labs, in order to gain other work perspectives and develop some networking. As my second supervisor, Prof. Rein Ulijn , was invited to be the head of the Nanoscience Initiative in the new Advanced Science Research Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) , I have had the opportunity to go to New York and enjoy my time at one of the leading universities in the other half of the globe. I have spent six weeks  in a brand new, top quality research center at the end of 2014.

November 2014 I had the chance to attend the Health Care Infection Society (HIS;   www.his.org.uk/ ).  I must admit, with my background in engineering and design, attending an event primarily targeted at clinicians and microbiologist was a little daunting. There was a real fear that I was in for three days of talks that would go entirely over my head. Thankfully though this was not the case and over the course of the conference, I managed to attend a wide range of interesting presentations. Topics ranged from those directly related to my work, such as endoscope decontamination and water borne pathogens, to talks more applicable to microbiology as a whole such as the slightly daunting concept of viable-but-non-culturable bacteria (how dead is really dead?!).

Being a parent is far from easy; however it is one of the most rewarding things a person can do. Being a teen parent, on the other hand, often carries with it a “stigma” which leads to many other issues for the young mother. We say mother as the teenage parents are often unmarried and living apart, so the father sometimes manages to “escape” many of the duties that a parent should be responsible for, leading to little effect on “normal” life.