What our Students say
“The DTP has given me the opportunity to receive training on a number of areas in some way related to my PhD. The training opportunities are diverse in their nature, locations and themes. In the first year I had the opportunity to attend a course at the Natural History Museum, and by the end of my first two years I will have received training in various aspects of ecology, phylogenetics and taxonomy, both at my home institution, elsewhere in the UK and Europe.” Danielle Satterthwaite, University of Manchester
“My favourite thing about the Liverpool Manchester DTP is the opportunity to meet other student researchers in very different fields to mine: rock deformation, river flooding, soil chemistry, hurricanes, etc. I’ve made solid friendships and connections that will continue to help and support me in future research and work. It’s great interacting with other enthusiastic and innovative scientists.” Jenny Evans, University of Liverpool
“The DTP has given me the opportunity to take part in a number of training events both within the two universities and externally. A particular highlight for me this year was a SEM and Microprobe training course run at the Natural History Museum in London for NERC students – I got to go behind the scenes at one of the places which first inspired me to find out more about the Earth. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time so far during my PhD, and I am looking forward to more opportunities over the next few years.” Sarah Newport, University of Manchester
“The NERC EAO DTP has enabled me to work with scientists at the forefront of my area of research, through the partnership with the National Oceanography Centre. The facilities here are also at my disposal, including a supercomputing cluster and the wealth of data held at the British Oceanic Data Centre. The collaboration with the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester has given me access to a wide range of training courses to enable me to further my research, as well as provide a gateway to training around the UK.” Kieran Newman, University of Liverpool
“One of my favourite aspects of the DTP so far has been the abundance of scientific computing courses on offer. As well as the DTP’s own Computing and Data Analysis module and the week-long Introduction to Scientific Computing workshop run by NCAS, being an EAO DTP student gives you access to the University of Manchester’s Research Computing classes. Here, everything is on offer with one-day classes on UNIX, Matlab, Python and Fortran, as well as sophisticated techniques such as parallelisation and MPI.” Callum Thompson, University of Liverpool
"I am a NERC DTP student in my first year of a PhD in Atmospheric Science at the University of Manchester. I am researching the interaction of convective storms along drylines and cold fronts, supervised by Professors David Schultz and Geraint Vaughan. I expect my research to involve idealized simulations of convective storms along these boundaries using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF). As part of my DTP training I have attended a WRF workshop and also expect to attend a week-long Atmospheric Dynamics training course in Jülich, Germany. As part of the DTP I have had the opportunity to interact with other DTP students in Liverpool, as well as those in Manchester. I will also be able to attend courses in Liverpool as well as specialist courses provided by NERC. Additionally, I have the opportunity to be a part of the committee organising the DTP conference, where DTP students will be able to showcase their work to leading academics." Trevor Mitchell, University of Manchester
The first few weeks of PhD life is exciting, hectic and an exercise in time-management, but you soon settle in with the help of staff and fellow students, who have answered every “how do I…?” with endless patience. I have already been on several training courses (and organised many more), registered and submitted an abstract for a conference, and more importantly started doing work on my project!
The DTP strongly encourages its students to enter into as many training opportunities as possible, both inside and outside of your subject area, in order to get the most out of doing a PhD. I am planning to do training in specific subject areas, such as noble gas mass spectrometry and the “Chemical Changes in Rocks” workshop; as well as broaden my transferable abilities with communication skills and public engagement courses run exclusively for the DTP. My aim is to gain the greatest amount of experience both in terms of scientific training and personal development over the course of my PhD.
One of the best things about the DTP is the diversity of projects it covers, which leads to a broad range of ‘cohort’ subjects (from shark genetics to atmospheric modelling) and therefore highly varied discussions at DTP meetings!” Amy Parker, University of Manchester