It means that if I have, say, a medical appointment at 1pm, I can go and make up for the time later that day or on weekends. The other thing I love about doing a PhD is being pretty much totally responsible for the project, from beginning to end. When I encounter problems in the lab (pretty much on a weekly or even daily basis), I’m the one who needs to find a solution by trials and errors, reading papers, or asking for help…lastly, doing a PhD means always learning and that’s a privilege I don’t take for granted.

The beauty of a PhD is that everyone has their own routine. In my department, some people, like myself, start the day very early while others come a little later. As long as the work gets done, it doesn’t matter if your day starts at 6am or 1pm.

Personally, my day always starts by putting my lab coat, gloves and goggles on and heading to the lab right away to prepare my experiments. I then run the experiments of the day, each one lasting anything between three and seven hours on average (if everything goes well). I end the day by analysing the data, replying to emails and planning the next day. The rest of my day is taken by sport, volunteering, socialising and reading! I also meet with my supervisors once a month and teach to first year Chemical Engineering undergraduate students.

I mainly use the labs and offices in S Building as it’s where I’m located. I have my personal equipment but also use shared kits available to all PhD students in the department. If I need a specific piece of equipment used by another research group, I can ask them to borrow it and to train me on it.

Throughout my PhD, I have been involved with the Women’s Engineering Society, LSU Action and the Loughborough PhD Social and Support Network. I cannot recommend getting involved enough (if you can). Doing a PhD is very stressful and can be quite isolating, so having something outside of my research was essential to my wellbeing. Not only did I meet incredible people and learn a plethora of skills, but it was important to me to give some of my time to people in need.

Recently, I’ve also been working at the COVID Asymptomatic Testing Centre.

I’ve had multiple occasions to present my work during my PhD, whether at local and national conferences (in person and online) or at seminars within my schools. I’ve also been invited to talk about my research to Loughborough Chemical Engineering undergraduate students or primary school students.

My proudest moment so far has been to be awarded the Presidential Award at the PhD Award Ceremony in 2020 for the volunteering I did throughout my PhD with the Loughborough PhD Social and Support Network, the Women’s Engineering Society, LSU Action, as a student representative and as a STEM Ambassador. I’m really passionate about gender equality and supporting the PhD and local community and it was an honour to be recognized by fellow PhD students for it.