The UCL - Yale doctoral exchange program

At the start of the year, I was lucky enough to participate in the UCL-Yale doctoral exchange, a program that sponsors doctoral students from both institutions to spend up to 3 months working with a lab group at the partner university. So in February, I went off to New Haven to work with Prof. Mark Brandon on my research using river networks to infer tectonics in the Sierra Nevada. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, Mark has worked on and advanced a number of fields in Earth Science, with expertise in low-temperature thermochronology, stream power modelling and the use of stable isotopes for palaeoaltimetry. Mark had also recently attended a Geological Society of America meeting on the Sierra Nevada, and having grown up in California, had a keen interest for solving the debate surrounding the mountain ranges’ growth and development.

“The doctoral exchange was an excellent opportunity to develop my skillset related to my PhD, learn a lot about my study area, and see how other researchers and lab groups operate at a different institution. 

I was originally slated to go to New Haven at the end of January, but a visa delay meant some rescheduled flights were needed, and I eventually touched down in New York on the coldest day of the year (something like -20C). The day after, I went into Yale to meet with Mark and a few other PhD students. I really enjoyed working with Mark, we had regular meetings and by the end the exchange I felt like I’d learned a lot and I was freshly enthused about my research. Having been back in the UK for a couple of months, we are still meeting on Zoom and working on the project, and other ideas that we talked about when I was in New Haven, and I’m looking forward to continuing our future collaboration. 

My highlight from the exchange was helping teach on an undergraduate field trip to Oman. Unlike in the UK, the vast majority of students were majoring in other disciplines such as Law or Computer Science, and although they were less familiar with the subject, they were so enthusiastic to be in the field which made teaching all the more rewarding. The geology in Oman was truly world class, and the trip was a lot of fun, if a little stressful at times - I don’t think our car rental company will be vying for the departments business any time soon…On the whole though, it was nice to work in a different department for a little bit and I would recommend the exchange to anyone thinking about it!

Links:

• Adam Smith's academic profile
• Adam Smith's Twitter handle
• Structural Geology and Tectonics, Yale University