• Question: what is your biggest achievement?

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      Asked by Conor to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 13 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by stimpson-TSQD, MoneyMayweather (TMT), ChocolateDonut, RandomEmoKid, thewhiteboiijoseph.
      • Photo: Robert Williams

        Robert Williams answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        Passing my driving test first time – led me to get some jobs that havinga clean driving licence was a big advantage – I know drive fork-lift trucks as part of my current job.

      • Photo: Laura Finney

        Laura Finney answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        I think it was going to university! I came from a family with no university background and am from an area of the country where it isn’t very popular to go to university. I did well and got in and was one of few of my friends to go and study at university, never mind do a science subject 🙂

      • Photo: John Fossey

        John Fossey answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        I guess publishing (or being a coauthor of) my first paper.
        I was an ERASMUS exchange student spending summer 1998 in France, CNRS (LCC) in Toulouse. As a result I was lucky enough to get some work published. From that point I got the bug.
        http://www.johnfossey.com/publications

      • Photo: Ruth Patchett

        Ruth Patchett answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        I think when I worked for a year for a chemical company for part of my degree. It was in Geneva in Switzerland so I had to move to a whole new country on my own. It was also the first time I worked in a professional lab rather than just as a student and I got put on a really interesting project with a small team that were really helpful in helping me learn. It was a big challenge and not always easy but all of that made it feel like more of an achievement.

      • Photo: Luke Williams

        Luke Williams answered on 13 Jun 2016:

        Surviving my viva (without throwing one of my examiners out the window). It was a particular kind of hell that lasted for four hours and I could barely walk after it.

        For reference, the viva is kind of like an interview, carried out by two examiners. They look at your final project report (a thesis), and then may ask you any question they feel is relevant. This can result in some random questions from all over the place, asked by people who are experts in the field. Can be quite stressful at the best of times!

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