Vision of LIFE - Volume 17 - No. 1

16
Life as a PhD-student
ounting the years as a PhD is probably more confronting than counting the years as
a student. It’s with a slight shock that I realise that I’m almost halfway through my
project! It also makes me wonder how I ended up here.
Eight years ago I had just finished the introductory weekend of LIFE and had started
studying LST. Living things have always been fascinating to me, so I thought I had
made the right choice with LST in Delft and Leiden.
Cell Factory. Already then I had I ended the
era of being a student in the United States
with an industrial internship at Mascoma
Corporation.
Science
When in the second year the biological
courses became the majority of the courses, I
really knew that I had made the right choice.
And moreover, I had a great group of fellow
students who were as enthusiastic as I was
about parties and LST. As a group we got
through courses like Transport Phenomena,
quantum physics and calculus and we
definitely made the practicals even more fun
than they already were.
“Counting the years as a PhD is
probably more confronting than
counting the years as a student.”
In the following years I did my minor at
Imperial College in London (UK) and took
on the role of Quaestor in the 15th board of
LIFE. After a year full of parties, symposia,
study trips and fun with my fellow boardmembers,
I started the LST master in Delft
with the tracks Biochemical Engineering and
Although all the theoretical courses in the LST
curriculum are interesting and fun, I liked it
even better during my BEP and MEP projects
when everything came together and toe goal is
to search for a solution. Both of these projects
I did at the Industrial Microbiology (IMB)
group. You could call it a boring choice to do
both research projects at the same research
group. I prefer to think that I just made a well
informed choice the first time, it’s a matter of
perspective!
It was obvious that I wanted to stay in
academia for a little longer after finishing
the master in Delft. I did consider to look for
a PhD-project abroad, but I was lured back
by the high quality supervision, working
atmosphere and a very interesting project for
another 4 years at IMB.
So what does my life after LIFE look like?
I still go to the faculty in Delft every day. I
still hold a pipette (almost) every day and I
still think about biotechnology every day. So
what has changed? First off, I don’t live in a
student house anymore, but have the luxury
to have my own apartment. Secondly the
project is a bit longer than the 3 or 8 months
of the previous research projects, which gives
the opportunity to plan ahead and also gives
more room for trial and error.
One of the parts of my job that I really enjoy
is education, which is as much a part of my
job as research is. It makes my day when
students get excited about things I explain.