Daniel Hill, BSc Psychology and MSc Neuroscience

Job title: PhD Student (Visual Neuroscience, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology).
Employer:  UCL

Who did you find inspiring at UCL and why?

My 3rd year undergraduate project supervisor, Professor Nilli Lavie. While I completed my project, Prof Lavie gave me the same amount of attention and freedom that would be given to a PhD student, despite her very busy schedule. This experience of working closely with such a successful academic cemented my career choice of pursing a PhD.

Tell us a bit about the work you’re doing now...

I'm currently completing a PhD at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, exploring the use of fluorescent retinal biomarkers to diagnose and monitor neurodegenerative disease. This involves the synthesis and purification of recombinant human protein from bacteria, followed by protein modification and subsequent testing in vitro and in vivo.

How did your UCL degree help you get to where you are now?

BSc Psychology at UCL provided me with an excellent start to enter the field of neuroscience. While the course provided a broad understanding of the basics of neuroscience, where it truly excelled is in the skills it taught me that my bioscience colleagues did not learn on their undergraduate degrees. This includes knowledge of statistics, experimental design, writing papers, and computer programming. The importance of these skills, which are applicable to all scientific disciplines, cannot be underestimated, and helped me to stand out amongst my peers.

What would be your advice for current students?

Being at UCL provides you opportunities to network with prominent academics, find someone that is working on something you are passionate about and see if you can get involved.