What you can expect from your PhD

Three years from now, you will be the leading expert in your specialist area and, unsurprisingly, quite a different person. You should leave the lab as your supervisor's equal! Along the way you will ahve plenty of opportunties to explore your limits of patience and endurance, and reap the satisfaction of doing unique work. You'll adapt existing talents and acquire new skills. As anywhere else, networking is crucial: the more people you know and tlak to, the better. You will learn how to make productive use of your time, think up clever experiments, become a servant to rigorous scientific standards and keep up with the recent literature. You'll be able to think citically about your work and relate it clearly to others, both orally and in written form.