Cohort Building Activities

Soft Electronic Materials Summer School

We often run a summer school where the science agenda comprises of a series of academic talks, research presentations from CPE researchers and students and poster presentations from MRes students. Throughout the week, students are also engaged in a group project, this year to create a youtube tutorial to explain a concept in soft electronic materials to undergraduates.

As we are able to see each other in real life and not via a computer screen, our MRes students head to Richmond Park for a picnic in the spring sun.

PhD/MRes - What Next? Careers Event

Acting on feedback from our students after months of remote working and meetings, we put together a careers event to deliver some insights on what to do after a PhD or MRes and to provide some inspiring examples. We invited a number of people from academia and industry - including four of our PECDT alumni to give short talks about their careers and to answer questions in a panel discussion.

• Dr Diego Bagins, Chief Scientific Officer at CSEM Brasil
• Dr Sam Cryer (PECDT alumni), Deep Science Ventures
• Dr Iain Hamilton (PECDT alumni), KAUST
• Prof Martin Heeney, Department of Chemistry
• Prof David Lidzey, University of Sheffield and cofounder and Chairman of Ossila
• Dr Julianna Panidi (PECDT alumni), University of Southampton
• Dr Seb Pont (PECDT alumni), Baringa Partners
• Dr Jess Wade, Department of Materials

It turned out to be a popular event, with a lively discussion, and questions including:

• How has being part of the PE-CDT helped you in your career path? Even if it's no longer in academia?
• For those that did short postdoc/research assistant positions in their PhD groups or elsewhere, do you think these were valuable?
• How much time did you spend on browsing for job offers, sending applications, have interviews and so on? How early did you start towards the end of your PhD?
• What was the best way of finding out what kind of science-adjacent (i.e. non-research) jobs there are, both in general and in London?
• For those with experience with starting companies, what were the biggest challenges you faced early on, and where did you find investment?
• What are the biggest differences between research in industry and academic? 
• What specific skills/experience do you look for in Post PhD students to employ that they would not have gained within the academic setting? 
• For those who didn't choose academia path after phd, do you think it is necessary to gain work/internship experience while doing phd? From research background, what suggestions would you give for such transition?
• How did you find the opportunities of funding for your PhD? Did you find funding before you start your PhD or after?
• Would you give any advice to anyone who is currently having trouble with their project, and how they can push though a difficult time in research?