Summer Research Internship Review

I really enjoyed it because I was allowed to plan and conduct my own pharmacology research project with the help of PhD students in the lab and my supervisor. I was also provided with funding for the project itself. I really enjoyed learning more about cystic fibrosis (my research topic) and getting hands-on experience in a lab environment, being able to conduct my own experiments and culturing cells and performing fluorescence analysis of my data. I also enjoyed writing and presenting a report of my research at the end of my placement.

I really enjoyed getting to know the members in the lab, including the PhD students and my supervisor. They were very supportive in helping me with my research whenever I was in trouble and needed help with things I was inexperienced in and they taught me how to conduct my experiments prior to letting me independently perform my own experiments. Overall, I greatly enjoyed working with them and I ended up undertaking my dissertation in their lab.

I was provided with a great degree of support and guidance by my supervisor and my fellow lab members. They helped me with showing me how to perform experiments and follow lab safety protocol and were always around to support me whenever I needed help or performed a step wrong in my experiment.

My days during the placement typically started from 10 a.m. and would end at around 5 or 6 p.m., depending on how many experiments I had to conduct in a day and how long they would take. I had an hour and a half lunch break but was free to take a break while I was waiting for my experiments to finish, which would sometimes take from 1 to 3 hours.

I produced an independent research project during my placement and thus I was provided with a great deal of responsibility. I was responsible for writing and presenting a report of my research data and for conducting my own experiments and analysing my data. Although I was provided support from my fellow lab members and supervisor, ultimately the experiments and report were up to me to plan and conduct.

The skills and experience I have gained over this placement have been very helpful in my degree and my job-hunting. I ended up using a similar topic that was the focus in my placement as the topic of my final year's dissertation in my undergraduate degree as I highly enjoyed my placement. I was also able to expand my CV by adding a wide list of lab skills and experience to it, which helped me greatly in job hunting.

The atmosphere of the office was warm and friendly, our office was small and cosy and consisted of around 4-5 members and a small kitchen and work desks. I was always comfortable working in the office and taking tea breaks to chat with fellow lab members, and I had a great experience overall.

The work placement was very well organised. Prior to starting my placement, I met up with my supervisor a number of times to plan my research project and experiments, along with applying for funding and getting guidance on how to conduct my project and what the aims of my project were. I was also provided with a tour of the lab and facilities so that I was familiar to my workplace prior to starting my placement.

I was provided with funding by the British Pharmacological Society, who provided me with a generous stipend to fund both my project, research and travel expenses. This allowed me with sufficient funds to conduct my project and so I was given a great deal of investment in my project. Having been given guidance and training by both my supervisor and PhD students, I was also given a lot of personal training and development.

As my research project was focused on pharmacology, which was the topic of my undergraduate degree and the subject that I specialised in at my work, the placement provided me with a greater depth of experience and knowledge in pharmacological research. This was very helpful in expanding my CV and searching for employment as a researcher or science writer.

As my colleagues were PhD students, we generally were of similar ages and got along very well. I had fun chatting and socialising with my colleagues during my free time, although we didn't do many activities out-of-hours as our work usually ran late and had an early start. Overall, I very much enjoyed working with my colleagues.

I commuted from home to my workplace and so I didn't have many living expenses, other than the commute, which I obtained funding for. As my placement was in a university setting, there weren't many socialising expenses either as I was able to use student discounts for many things and activities and restaurants around the area in general were inexpensive.

The night life around the area was fun and exciting since I worked in a university setting and so had access to various inexpensive bars and clubs. I am not much of a nightlife person so I wasn't a fan of going to bars and clubbing, so I can't recommend any places or give a proper review of the nightlife around my workplace.

As my placement was set in a university setting, there were numerous opportunities and activities available nearby. Social clubs, gyms and special events were usually occurring at least once a week and I was involved with numerous socialising and volunteering activities when I was out of hours. As my placement occurred over the summer, there were also a lot of summer festivals and events happening.