2019 Autumn School for PhD Students

Are you just starting your PhD and want to become the best researcher possible? Are you nearing the end of your PhD and want to know what happens in a thesis defence, or what career paths are out there?  No idea how to use a microphone properly or a bit shy about how to ask a question? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions then  the Edinburgh Neuroscience Autumn School for PhD Students is for you!

What is the Autumn School for PhD Students?

This training day for PhD students has run since 2012 and it is hugely popular.  It is open to all types of PhD student (basic, clinical, neuroinformatics, psychology) provided they are working in a neuroscience-related field at Edinburgh. It aims to:

• Encourage interdisciplinary mixing from the earliest stages of a research career
• Instil the skills required to aspire to the very highest research standards
• Provide useful information to allow planning for the next phase of your career
• Build confidence in approaching your future studies and career

It is specifically designed to encourage students to attend twice during their PhD:

• at the start of your first year in order to meet students from across all research centres and learn about some of the fundermental principals and skills required to be an excellent researcher
• in you final year to help you find out about different future career options and how to prepare for funding applications, plus impart some of what what you have learnt to the new first year students!

This full day event is a mixture of activities/talks for all students together, as well as dedicated parallel workshops specifically tailored for first year and for final years students.

The Autumn School for PhD students is very grateful to the Deanery of Biomedical Sciences and the Deanery of Clinical Sciences for their financial support for the day.

Registration

Registration is available to first and final year PhD students at the University of Edinburgh undertaking neuroscience-related projects regardless of discipline (so includes psychology, neuro-informatics, clinical etc). There will be a small £15 fee to register, which includes all refreshments and a hot sit-down lunch (which is a great opportunity to make new friends). Registration is now open, it will close at 5pm on Mon 28 October 2019 or when we are full.  Register at the university ePay site (now open!).

Programme

This is a full day meeting starting a 9am and finishing at 5pm.

08.45    Registration

09.00    Welcome from Prof Charles ffrench-Constant, Dean of Research, College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine

09.10    Speed dating 1

09.30    Workshops

Workshop 1: What is expected of a PhD student - starting your PhD project  (for first year students)

• Why am I doing this?, with Prof Charles ffrench-Constant, Dean of Research, College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine
• Thinking about my project, with Prof Cathy Abbott, MRC Institute for Genetics & Molecular Medicine

Workshop 2: Finishing your PhD and moving on - your viva and beyond  (for final year students)

• Your viva from the examiner’s point of view, Dr Kathy Evans, MRC Institute for Genetics & Molecular Medicine
• My viva experience, Dr Aleks Stolicyn
• Transitioning to postdoctoral research - a first hand experience, Dr Matt Livesey, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences

10.45    Tea/Coffee break

11.15    Being a PhD student – what to expect, and what I wish I’d known!   An opportunity for new students to find out, from those finishing, how to survive a PhD!  We hope to build a useful resource, for other students, from your questions and observations.

12.30    Lunch

13.30    Workshops (with informal tea/coffee break about 2.30 - 2.45pm)

Workshop 3: What is expected of a PhD student - being a successful researcher (for first year students)

• What makes a good research study?, Dr Emily Sena, CAMARADES, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
• What makes a good human research study?  Dr Judy Oakley, Psychology
• The problem of replications, Professor Peter Kind, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences
• Amplification and how to handle it! (Making yourself heard and, working with microphones), Dr Ben Fletcher-Watson, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities

Workshop 4: Finishing your PhD and moving on - career paths (for final year students)

• What does an academic do all day?, Prof Cathy Abbott, MRC Institute for Genetics & Molecular Medicine
• Working for funding agencies and science administration, Dr Helen Nickersen, MRC Institute for Genetics & Molecular Medicine
• Being a Parliamentary Researcher, Dr Damon Davies, Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) (tbc)
• Working in a spin-out company, Dr Lysimachos Zografos, Parkure and Entrepenuer-in-Residence, Edinburgh Innovations

15.45      Speed dating 2 (with refreshments) 

16.00      How to ask a good question (and give a good answer),  Professor Catherina Becker, Co-Director, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences

Followed by a practice question session with final year students presenting 5 min talks of their work. Lots of questions please!

17.00      Close of Meeting

Feedback from attendees at the 2017 and 2018 Autumn Schools

The 2018 Autumn School scored 4.6/5 for enjoyment and 4.4/5 for usefulness

• “Found the thesis abstract session incredibly useful and allowed me to add some clarity to my PhD project.”
• “I enjoyed the workshop on the viva, as it is somehow this black box that everyone knows about, but no one really ever explains how it works in detail.”
• "Both first year workshops provided a lot of interesting and very useful information, and I found myself thinking about aspects of my project that I previously hadn't considered."
• " It was really useful to hear about other potential careers outside of academia"
• "The microphone workshop was interesting and engaging. It is most definitely useful and generally not something that is taught”
• "The microphone session was really helpful, and I was able to put what I'd learnt into practice 2 days later when I had to use a clip-on microphone for the first time at a seminar talk!"
• "I liked the size of the groups, I felt I was able to ask all of the questions I wished to ask” 
• "It was great being able to ask the final years questions in an informal way, hearing personal and down-to- earth answers."
• "The final year Q and A was also useful as we got to ask the questions we can't/daren't ask our supervisors.”
• "I very much enjoyed the Q&A session and thinking on how I could give the first year students some advice for their upcoming years."
• "The asking a good question session was particularly good. Fear of asking stupid questions is very common amongst the students I know, this definitely helped!"
• ”Overall, the day was incredibly valuable. It identified many things I didn't know and many I hadn't thought of.” 
• "I had reservations about this workshop but it far and away exceeded my expectations. Thank you for an enjoyable and immensely helpful day!"