4 Year PhD Programme in the CIMR

Timetable

Year 1

The first year will involve attending lectures, seminars or discussion groups in the CIMR given by group leaders who will provide training in genetic statistics, bioinformatics, genetics, infection, immunity, crystallography, biochemistry and scientific methodologies. There will also be hot-topic sessions where students can rapidly get up to date with an area of interest and develop new ideas about a subject. The core scientific training in year 1 will often be together with students on the Wellcome Trust 4 yr infection and immunity programme as many of the lecturers for both courses are from the CIMR. However, CIMR 4 yr PhD programme students will also have additional lectures and tutorials from other CIMR members whose primary interest is in the broader categories listed in the programme design. This will lead to a general scientific training in areas such a crystallography, protein biochemistry, cell biology or genetics prior to specialisation in the PhD topic that the candidate chooses. All students will also undertake 3 x 10-week mini-projects with PIs in the CIMR.

Woven into the 1st year course and assessment procedures is training in specialist scientific (information technology/bioinformatics/computation; confocal and electron microscopy; flow cytometry; DNA sequencing and genotyping; use of robotics) and transferable (project planning, costing and management; report, thesis and paper writing; communication skills; interviewing skills and team management; refereeing of papers and grant applications) skills.

The Core Topic sessions will take the form of 2 x 2 hour sessions per week with a faculty member acting as mentor. Core Topics for discussion fall within specific areas of the mentor’s research. It is envisaged that the mentor will give an historical (sometimes even personal) account of the major developments in the field, and that the sessions will focus on an appraisal of key scientific papers that have advanced the field. The major concept here is to expose students to the scientific process, and to demonstrate from (the mentor’s) first hand experience how scientific research progresses. This is in addition to gaining in-depth knowledge of this area or research.

Early in the first year of the programme, students will spend one 2-hour session with Mark Sprevak discussing the Philosophy of Science and examining the scientific process. This session will again combine didactic and informal presentation and discussion. We hope this will inspire students to relate fundamental concepts on the scientific process in the context of the Core Topics sessions that they will participate in throughout the year. Mark Sprevak will then return for another session with the students in the summer term, to discuss with them how their ideas have matured throughout the year. In particular, to explore whether the concepts developed by philosophers in the pre-molecular revolution in science, still apply in the context, for example, of high-throughput and whole genome approaches to research. We would like our students to enter their main research project with a developing personal scientific philosophy and a clear perspective on the type of research that might ‘switch them on’.

Years 2-4

Students on the CIMR 4 yr PhD programme will be able to undertake a 3 year PhD with a selected supervisor after completing the basic training in year 1.