Choosing Newcastle
I studied here as an undergraduate and enjoyed it very much. I chose to continue working in Newcastle and was keen to stay in the area during my postgraduate studies. Also, Newcastle was one of the only universities offering the particular course I wanted to do.
Studying at Newcastle
The EngD is great because there are a wide variety of taught modules (biology, chemistry, maths, bioprocess engineering, research methodology, and computer processing of data) in addition to a research project in collaboration with an industrial partner. It means I'll leave with industry experience, doctoral level research skills and a broad interdisciplinary knowledge. You have to be very self motivated as there are a lot of new things to learn and the lecturers expect you to manage your own learning and time.
University facilities like
I use the library, particularly the online services which are very useful. There are lots of training sessions on different skills such as technical writing, using library services and certain software packages that I have also found useful.
Living in Newcastle
Newcastle is very lively with a compact city centre. There’s plenty of variety in the nightlife, so you'll probably find something to suit you and there's also lots going on in the arts here (The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, The Sage, several good theatres and lots of smaller galleries).
Before your research degree
I received a BSC (Hons) 2:1 in Physiological Sciences at Newcastle University and graduated in 2001. I then worked at Millipore, a global life sciences company in protein purification, chromatography and downstream processing of monoclonal antibodies.
Funding
I received funding from EPSRC and some funding from an industrial partner.