Student Profiles

Clare Reeder: BSc Neuroscience

" I chose Leeds after attending the open day. I felt instantly drawn to the Neuroscience course and the atmosphere on campus. I also had friends that came here and found that Leeds was a great student city.

I enjoy my course because of the up-to-date research that we learn about and how it is related to current issues. I have particularly enjoyed studying the Systems Neurophysiology module, where we learnt about the emotional system and were encouraged to think outside the box. All the lectures were very engaging and well-structured, coming together to form a really comprehensive overview of the topic.

I have received lots of support from my personal tutor throughout my degree, and lecturers have always been available to speak to and will happily reply to any question whether it’s via email or in person.

The university has great learning resources, including the Health Sciences Library, which has a great environment for working and there are computer clusters throughout the university including some which are open 24 hours, meaning you always have access to a computer. There are also bars, cafes and shops in the union and throughout the campus. The Miall building is great for tea breaks, where you can buy a cup of tea for 30p!

Leeds is a great city because of the huge percentage of students, the lively atmosphere in Hyde Park and Headingley (the main areas for student housing) and the busy union. Living in halls in first year was a great way to make friends, and as there were a lot of contact hours on my course I found it easy to get to know my course mates, particularly during the practical sessions. Joining societies is also a great way to meet people and I met lots of great people by joining the hockey society.

Studying at Leeds has been the best time of my life, and I encourage any student to come here. The staff are great on the course, the course itself is interesting and the university has a great atmosphere.  It’s only a 10 minute walk to the  city centre which has great shops and bars, but the city is also close to the beautiful Dales where you can go for a walk and escape the city.

I live in Headingley, which is a really popular area for students – full of bars and restaurants including my favourites; Salvos and Sukothai. The Hyde Park Picture House is a great little old-fashioned cinema in Hyde Park which shows latest releases as well as independent and world cinema.

In addition to studying at the university I have a job as a PA to a disabled student. I am also school rep for Biomedical Sciences and I run the Faculty of Biological Sciences Netball Team as well as going to the university gym.

My advice to students starting at Leeds is to be yourself, and remember that the people you meet in the first week might not be your best friends for life, so try to speak to as many people as possible. I found that living in catered halls was a great way to meet people, so I would definitely recommend applying for them."

At the time of writing, Clare was a final year student. She graduated in 2011.

Student Profiles

Emma Salt: BSc Neuroscience

A day in the life...

7.45am – "I get up and get ready, preparing myself for another day of learning about brains! In my first year I lived in Charles Morris halls of residence, which is located right in the centre of campus. I could roll out of bed, put on the first thing I could find and shuffle towards the Roger Stevens Building! This is where most of the lectures are held. I now live in Headingley so I have to wake up pretty early to make it in on time!"

9am – "I arrive at my first lecture of the day, whether it be on voltage-gated potassium channels or anatomy of the basal ganglia, it certainly gets you thinking. In my first two years, my timetable was almost full whereas all my flatmates had 7 or 8 hours of lectures a week. Now I’m in my third year, the number of lectures has gone down considerably, but this is because I’m expected to do a lot of the ground work myself."

10am – "When completing a scientific degree, it goes without saying that lab work makes up a lot of your time spent in uni. If you do neuroscience, in your third year you will end up doing a practical investigating the ionic basis of an action potential, also known as ‘the snail brain practical’. This involved impaling ganglia of a snail’s brain with microelectrodes in order to manipulate electrical activity with different drugs. It took me and my partner 3 hours in the first session to actually record anything so you have to be pretty patient! All the practicals you will do are really informative and fun too."

4pm – "Finish my lab session and then go and work in a computer cluster or in the library. The Health Sciences Library is excellent in that it has hundreds of resources at your fingertips and the staff are really helpful and friendly. The computer clusters have become a second home to us and there are loads dotted around campus so you’re spoilt for choice!"

5.30-6pm – "Get home and breathe. By this time I’m usually ready for a break. My housemates and I usually cook and eat together which is a good way of catching up with everyone."

9pm – "It’s not all work and no play, so don’t be put off! Even though I have a lot of work to do, I do feel it’s important to relax and go out and have a good time. The University has a fantastic union where there’s always something happening, from gigs to comedy clubs. There are numerous societies which you can join, whether you’re interested in sport, dancing or wine and cheese! (I kid you not). Leeds itself is a vibrant city where there is something for everyone.

If you come to Leeds you will love it! Coming here and living independently has really opened my eyes to all that’s happening in the 'big wide world'. You will meet people who will remain life-long friends and learn skills that you wouldn't learn anywhere else. Leeds is also an excellent choice for studying biomedical sciences as it has good research facilities where the research itself is highly regarded outside of Leeds. I have had a great time studying biomedical sciences here and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in this dynamic and fascinating field of study."

At the time of writing Emma was a final year student. She graduated in 2009.

Student Profiles

Philip McGoldrick: BSc Neuroscience

Summer studentship at Professor Deuchars's lab, University of Leeds

More information about Professor Deuchars's lab

Before starting the studentship I was quite worried that my practical skills wouldn't be up to the task. I'm normally pretty nervous in the lab. I always worry about doing things wrong, not doing things in the exact way and making mistakes that will ruin experiments!

From the start my fears were eased. Everyone in the lab was really helpful and friendly, and it made me much more relaxed. Because of this, I think that I've picked things up quicker and been more successful than I would have been if I'd have been constantly worrying about messing up. Before the studentship I hadn't ever done any immunohistochemistry, but now I find it fairly straight forward. Because the lab is a relaxed environment, and there are fewer people than there are in normal practicals, it's a lot easier to learn the different techniques and methods that are used in each step of the process, so now I'm able to do all kinds of things that are going to be useful in practicals in the future.

When you're doing the experiments it also helps you learn some of the theory too, which will be useful during term time. By understanding what and why you're doing something, you can understand things more completely. For example, by reading research papers about what you're doing it broadens your knowledge. Recently I've been identifying where a connexin protein is located in the brainstem. Previously the only brainstem areas I knew about were those we'd gone over in lectures, but actually seeing them through a microscope gets you familiar with their location and what they look like and it doesn't take long to be able to identify areas without a textbook.

When you get the results from your experiments, it's actually quite exciting. Because imunohistochemistry has a few different steps; it takes a few days between the start and end points of the experiment. The first time I did it I was slightly disappointed that I wouldn't get to see everything right away, but then once you actually get to see what you've done it makes it worthwhile and much more rewarding than the results from the in-course practicals.

During work, you get to work with your lecturers, PhD students, technicians, undergraduates and a host of other people. Everyone I met and worked with were really friendly and always willing to lend a hand.

The studentships pay well too, which is pretty good. Especially because you get paid for something you enjoy and it's something that will definitely improve both your knowledge and practical skills.

Discover more about the summer vacation studentship scheme.

Student Profiles

Rachael Powis: BSc Neuroscience

Research Placement in electrophysiology laboratory, University of Leeds

"Neuroscience is a fascinating and thought-provoking subject to study at the University of Leeds. The lectures on this course cover more than just neuroscience. We have the chance to study a whole range of topics, including Pharmacology, Microbiology, Endocrinology to name but a few (basically a lot of –ologies!).

The lab practical sessions are designed to help you understand the weeks lecture material and learn new experimental techniques. For example, when studying anatomy of the heart, you are given the opportunity to perform a dissection that makes the textbook material come alive. The lab practicals vary greatly each week, last week we got to ‘zap’ each other’s arm when testing nerve conduction velocities, which was fun and pretty painful too!

The highlight of the course so far has definitely been my research lab placement. I am currently working in the lab of Dr King, a Reader in Neuroscience, with an interest in spinal cord neurophysiology and neuropharmacology, in particular with the molecular and cellular aspects of chronic pain. She has several projects underway; in the lab I have been working in she is researching rhythmicity in spinal dorsal horn sensory processing, which sounds pretty impressive to your mates down the pub!

The placement is for ten hours each week, which slots nicely in-between lectures. Shadowing a PhD student in an electrophysiology lab is a bit daunting at first, but you soon get used to all the complicated looking equipment and techniques. All the members of the lab are incredibly friendly and helpful, and the atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed. Work involves making solutions, lab duties such as pulling electrodes, and attending seminars on various interesting topics, such as pain and epilepsy.

The placement pays well, which is a bonus as I would actually do it for free! It’s much more beneficial to work in this environment than working behind a bar or something, as you’re getting paid to broaden your knowledge and learn experimental skills that will help you on your course.

I would recommend this placement to anyone. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after my degree finished, but this placement has helped me to decide that I would like to pursue a career in Neuroscience research in the future.

As far as I am aware Leeds is the only university that offers a research placement scheme in the first year, definitely something to be aware of when applying for a biomedical course!"

At the time of writing, Rachael was a first year student. She graduated in 2011.

Student Profiles

Joanna McCarter: BSc Neuroscience

Industrial Placement at GSK Singapore

" When I applied to do an industrial placement in Singapore, I don't think I really knew where it was – somewhere in Asia was probably as precise as I could fathom! Obviously, having lived and worked there for a whole year I now know its precise location. It is a small city state, based mainly on one single island off the south coast of peninsula Malaysia - just 60 miles north of the Equator. In the west of the main island, in a modern new science park, is GlaxoSmithKline's Cognition and Neurodegeneration R&D centre where I worked.

I was assigned to the molecular biology team and given my own project of creating a biochemical assay to assess cognitive improvement. Although my supervisor had ultimate control, I was allowed a lot of input into the direction that my project took.

I found the lab work was very tough at first. I was doing RNA extraction and reverse transcription followed by PCR to determine the relative gene expression in various brain regions. These procedures are very sensitive to mistakes and prone to contamination, so the accuracy of my technique was essential to obtain good results. However, after a couple of trial runs and a huge improvement in my practical skills I started to produce accurate data. By the end of the year I had completed several studies and had enough novel data to produce a scientific poster and present it at an international conference in Singapore, which was a very proud moment!

I would definitely recommend a year in industry to anyone thinking about a career in science. I developed my practical, presentation and literature searching skills and I also discovered first-hand how the R&D side of a pharmaceutical company works (you get paid too!). Everyone there was very welcoming and because of the small size of the department, there was a good social element to it, which meant that I made friends within the company. Many people were different ages and came from different cultural backgrounds to myself. I joined the GSK corporate dragon boat team, which was a lot of fun and our ladies squad managed to get silver medals in the national championships. Obviously, I had to take full advantage of my placement being in South East Asia and did a lot of travelling. Being able to pop over to Thailand or Malaysia for the weekend was really cool and experiencing so many amazing countries was definitely one of the highlights of my year. However, I did really enjoy my project and would have enjoyed it wherever it was. The great location was just a very welcome added bonus."

At the time of writing, Joanna was a final year student. She graduated in 2009.

Student Profiles

Matthew Lamont: BSc Neuroscience

Study Year Abroad at Arizona State University, USA

"My year abroad in the USA has given me a sense of new found independence that can only be brought about living in another country where you are well and truly away from the parents! I have also learnt a lot about our country's culture, America's culture and most importantly, I have learnt a lot about myself.

Academically it was great having the freedom to choose the classes I wanted to take. I dropped in and out of classes that interested me and that I think I am good at and it helped me narrow down what I want to do with the rest of my life. Also the freedom of choosing my own classes that interest me inspired me to learn about subjects that I have never even thought about. I studied buried cities and lost tribes which turned out to be fascinating. Lectures were just like being told a story about the people of the past and the people of the present who discovered them. I am also seeing neuroscience from another perspective through taking psychology classes.

Socially, my year abroad was amazing. Where I lived boasts 360 days of sunshine and they weren't lying. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt even in December and tried to make it to the pool everyday. The sports facilities are also incredible and through friends I have learnt how to play American football, baseball and ice hockey. Intermural tournaments in different sports took place monthly; at one point I was the intermural tennis champ!

In reality, this year for me was like the gap year I didn't take before starting university and has certainly refreshed my interest for Leeds and more importantly my degree. I highly recommend it!"

More information from the Study Abroad Office

At the time of writing, Matthew was a final year student. He graduated in 2008.