Lot's Wife Edition 6 2015

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30 SCIENCE & ENGINEERING BY CoURTNEY BAKER What’s Up Doc? Daniel Newman completed his undergraduate and Honours degree at the University of Queensland where his work studying attention in humans was awarded the McElwain Prize for the best research thesis in Psychology in the state. Currently doing a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at the Bellgrove Laboratory at Monash University, his research will add to our understanding of the neural systems governing spatial attention in humans. So tell me a bit about your field of research? I’m doing research on attention in humans. It’s in the field of cognitive neuroscience. We look at different explanations for different attention abilities in humans. So my Phd is about the ‘state vs trait’ influences on attention where state influences might be how much sleep you’ve had, whether you’ve had any stimulants like Ritalin or caffeine. Trait influences on attention include genes or connectivity in your brain, so white matter or structural connectivity. What got you into that field of research? In 2008 I started an undergrad in psychology at the University of Queensland and I loved that. I thought back then that I would become a clinical psychologist, but then throughout my degree I became more and more interested in neuroscience. I did my honours in the Queensland Brain Institute which was focused more on cognitive neuroscience with humans and so I decided to get into neuroscience with a Phd. What, in your opinion, makes psychology different to all other sciences? The fact that psychology is very broad. I’m doing biological psychology and I’m actually publishing in neuroscience journals. Something like molecular biology has certain boundaries whereas something like the studying the human brain might actually use something from molecular biology. Do you find that doing a PhD is quite stressful and if so how do you deal with that? Yeah it can be really stressful so my way of dealing with it is just working hard and getting the work done because once it’s done you’re not stressed anymore. But it’s not all work and no play, even with the all-consuming task of completing a Phd. daniel gets plenty of help from his colleagues in dublin where he has visited twice during his PhD. What was the purpose of going to Dublin? The project I’m working on is running here and at Trinity College in dublin. The purpose of me to go over there was actually to learn some analysis techniques from them that I couldn’t learn here. I did two stints in dublin; one for two weeks and the other for a month. The second trip was work for a month and then my girlfriend came over and we travelled around Europe. Do you have any advice for undergrad students going into postgrad? Firstly, you have to love it and the reason you have to love it is the limited number of spaces in research for a large number of people. So basically you’re going to have to work really hard doing long hours of difficult work for not as much money as you’d get in other fields. So if you’re going to do this you’ve got to love it because otherwise why would you do it? Do you feel like your Honours prepared you for a PhD? definitely, in my particular case it definitely did. I don’t think that’s always the case, the lab you’re in and the project you’ve got in your Honours varies a lot. In my case it prepared me well. I definitely recommend Honours to just get a little taste of research and then if you really love that then I recommend getting into research. But if you’re unsure then I would definitely advise against doing a Phd. You have to be fully sold on it and really motivated if you’re not fully sold and motivated at the start then you definitely won’t be by the end. What skills did you develop through Honours that prepared you for a PhD? Initiative, the ability to search for answers when you come up against a problem. Rather than waiting for someone to solve it for you you’ve really got to go and solve it yourself. That’s a big part of why I was successful in Honours. That’s the best thing I learnt from Honours is if you want to do well don’t wait for somebody else to do it for you, go and work it out for yourself. Actually, between the end of my third year and the start of Honours I also did a Summer Research Scholarship. That’s a great idea. They pay a little bit of money to take the pressure off so you can do that over summer instead of having a part-time job. I definitely recommend that. So according to daniel if you’re thinking you want to get into research a Summer Scholarship is the best way to ‘get a taste’. An Honours year is a great way to follow and if by this point you’re still hooked on research then a Phd is for you.
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 31 Puzzles Puzzle 1 Puzzle 2 Puzzle 3 Puzzle 4 Honour Roll Success, fame and glamour can all be yours! Simply submit the answers to msa-lotswife@monash.edu and you’ll get your name published on this page in the next issue! Issue 3 Issue 4 Max Zadnik Christopher E orrell William Molloy Sarah Spencer Christopher E orrell Max Zadnik Lucas Azzola Issue 5 Christopher E orrell Max Zadnik
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