• Question: What's your best achievement? You're all very inspiring!

    Asked by phagocyte on 11 Jan 2022.
    • Photo: Chris Budd

      Chris Budd answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      I developed a new way of doing weather forecasting which significantly reduced the error in the earlier forecasts. I also have two children!

    • Photo: Samuel Ellis

      Samuel Ellis answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      I am still fairly early in my career so cannot claim any ground-breaking discoveries! But personally I was very proud to finish my PhD.. 4 years of hard work in the lab and writing a thesis which is basically a book certainly felt like a big achievement when completed

    • Photo: Jonny Coates

      Jonny Coates answered on 11 Jan 2022: last edited 11 Jan 2022 2:20 pm

      Oh that’s way too kind! My biggest was the COVID work we did the past two years. I’m still early in my career to publishing as the senior author was amazing – and it was the first bit of work that was truely mine. But it isn’t really my achievement, the credit really does go to the team involved and I’m so thankful for the attention that the work has been given.

      Just as a comment to Eddie below, this is so common in academia and I think that is absolutely a huge achievement – I had my own issues when I was working in Cambridge and it can be so tough. Good mental health is also far more important than anything we will ever do in science.

    • Photo: Eddie Cano Gamez

      Eddie Cano Gamez answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      Perhaps surprising, but my biggest achievement has nothing to do with science. What I am the most proud of is having realised and accepted that I have depression. This happened during the pandemic, and getting help in the way of therapy and medication has been life changing for me. I find that I feel much better and also do much better science now.

    • Photo: Holly Kerr

      Holly Kerr answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      My biggest achievement was my grades for my Highers (similar to A levels) when I was at high school as I was going through a tough time in my personal life at that point.

      p.s. I think all you students getting through some of your school years during a global pandemic is pretty inspiring too!

    • Photo: Danielle Nader

      Danielle Nader answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      I applied for a patent on our drug that has been shown to effectively reduce COVID19 infection in vitro, in my 3rd year of my PhD, which I felt was a huge accomplishment!

    • Photo: Rebekah Penrice-Randal

      Rebekah Penrice-Randal answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      Doing a PhD and writing a PhD thesis in the pandemic on a pandemic causing virus! My whole life was coronaviruses for 2-3 years (I was studying MERS-CoV before SARS-CoV-2 emerged), and this was actually really emotionally draining and found myself struggling with mental health on the best of days! But getting through that was definitely the biggest achievement of my life so far. Now the PhD is out of the way I can return to work life balance and think about other things beyond coronaviruses in my spare time!! I’m pleased to say that even though I went through that stressful time, I still love doing research and learning about viruses!!

    • Photo: John Tulloch

      John Tulloch answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      I think my best achievement has been seeing students of mine publish their first research papers and pursue careers in science. You are all very inspiring too, I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be at school during a pandemic.

    • Photo: Melanie Krause

      Melanie Krause answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      Aw thank you phagocyte! 🙂
      I love your online-name by the way! I think for me it was completing my PhD. Not sure why but in the weeks leading up to it I was convinced I was going to fail because I had overlooked a major error in my research that my examiners would find.. but in the end that was not the case and my examiners actually really liked my work. It’s such a great feeling to complete a degree and to be awarded the final certificate.. I am sure you will feel the same once you are done with school 😉

    • Photo: The CMMID Team

      The CMMID Team answered on 12 Jan 2022:

      Witnessing the career of your previous students succeeding!

    • Photo: Laura Durrant

      Laura Durrant answered on 13 Jan 2022:

      That’s very kind of you! Thank you. Academically, my best achievement to date is getting a distinction in my Master’s degree in Molecular Medicine. That was a very proud moment. In my scientific career so far, my best achievement is helping to genetically surveillance COVID-19 as it spreads across the UK. The data we produce helps scientists around the UK to monitor the spread and evolution of the virus, identify new variants and design new drugs and vaccines.

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