• Question: Do you work alone or in a group?

    Asked by CharlotteW to Julian, Jane, Heather, Hugh, Helen on 16 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by mad.melissa, Izzyb, Liam.E, Chloe c, 449spaa33.
    • Photo: Jane MacArthur

      Jane MacArthur answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      Fundamentally my PhD is my work and my responsibility, and a lot of it is done alone. However, I have 3 supervisors from both Physics and Geology departments who guide me, and have had meetings with a mathematician too, and there is lots of support from laboratory staff to be trained on instruments I need or to help with queries.
      My primary supervisor has three other students, one who has done similar things to those I will be doing, and the two others study other aspects of Mars – eg one is working on compositions of rocks on Mars as seen by the Curiosity rover, so we compare and use each other’s data for similarities and differences between Curiosity’s data on Mars and martian meteorites.

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      I work in a small group, and often collaborate with other people. However I only meet them occasionally usually at workshops and meetings. I also work with my supervisor, and we have regular meetings, but a lot of the time I work on my own, although in an office with several other people.
      We have seminars twice a week where people from other institutions come and tell us about there work, or someone from our own department updates us on their work.
      We have “cake Friday” when every Friday we all get together over coffee and cake and talk about anything and everything.

    • Photo: Heather Campbell

      Heather Campbell answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      I’m part of a group of about 10 people based in Cambridge which search for objects that change in brightness, transient objects, with data from the Gaia Satellite data. But I collaborate with many different people all over the world on different research projects, we talk about the research on phone conferences and then meet up at conferences to discuss further.

      Usually each individual research project will be lead by one scientist and then others help with bits and pieces of the project and discussions.

      Big projects now, such as huge telescope surveys or satellite missions involve many many people. For example the Gaia satellite mission, which I work on has about 450 scientist around Europe.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      Thanks for the question guys 🙂 Most of the time I just get on with PhD work in my office, which I share with 3 other students, and if I get stuck with something I can ask them if they have any ideas. I have amazing office mates and we always have a laugh! Everyone in the department goes for coffee breaks together, and the students often go to the pub or out for dinner after work. It’s a great community to be part of. We have lots of visitors from other departments who come and share their work too, with seminar talks on Wednesdays and ‘Friday lunchtime talks’.

      The person I work with the most is my PhD supervisor, who drops in now and again to see how I’m doing, helps me figure out where to go next with my research, and generally works out problems I have. Sometimes we have meetings but they aren’t very formal. I also work closely with several other staff members and postdocs in the department. I’m part of a larger collaboration with members in both Durham and Oxford.

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