I had always really enjoyed Chemistry throughout my time at school and knew that I wanted to pursue the field when I came to university. I’m also extremely interested in drug discovery and development and having found the MPC course being offered by Loughborough it seemed the perfect opportunity to combine the two.

I’d have to say the opportunities for development in practical and theoretical skills. Having laboratory experiments from the start of first year meant we were able to start applying the theory to real applications. Teaching doesn’t just happen in a lecture theatre either, workshops and tutorials really help to get a better appreciation for the material.

It’s really reassuring that all of the teaching staff, not just the lecturers but the laboratory demonstrators and technicians are really eager to help and be there if you’re not certain on something. You can tell that they’re all passionate about Chemistry and really try to convey an open-door policy so you can always get the support you need. The STEMLab really speaks for itself with the analytical, synthetic and biological labs kitted out with everything you could imagine enabling such a range of high-quality experiments to run.

My favourite module would have to be the investigative projects for medicinal chemists (CMC027) currently being run in my third year. The laboratory sessions throughout the course help you to build up knowledge, skills and a thorough understanding of how to operate in a practical environment and now result in a set of investigative projects where we as students have a lot more control in the direction we want to take them. Think it might be interesting to alter the pH, temperature, or solvent? Go ahead! Oh now using the microwave reactor might bring some different results let’s give that a try. It’s definitely a module that helps to prepare you for research or a career after the course by giving you a safe space to develop skills but also how to apply the scientific method and think like a chemist.