I have great memories from my PhD years at UCL. I had the opportunity of being involved in world-leading research while being surrounded by a very friendly group of PhD students and staff. Most importantly, I had a fantastic supervisor, with whom I co-founded the company I work for now! My research focused on modelling the performance of upcoming science missions for exoplanet spectroscopy (to understand what their atmospheres are made of), and progressively evolved into supporting the project management team as we prepared a bid to the European Space Agency. These skills allowed me to take the initiative of challenging the established model of delivering scientific satellites, which are normally built only by space agencies. I started Blue Skies Space Ltd with Giovanna Tinetti and Jonathan Tennyson right after completing my PhD. The biggest take away I have from this experience is that there are no strict career paths after a PhD, and in fact UCL actively encourages getting involved in a variety of projects and types of work, including outside of Astrophysics. Also, the diverse, international and dynamic research environment at UCL genuinely stimulates original thinking. I would highly recommend PhD candidates to talk to many people and explore the vast amount of fascinating work being carried out at UCL - it’s an amazing and unique institution!
