April 20, 2017, by Lisa Chin
3 years in the lab
This post is written by Mohammad Reza Ketabchi, PhD candidate from the Department of Chemical and Environmental Enigneering.
The story began on 29th October 2013. It was a peaceful sunny day. I was officially a PhD student at the Faculty of Engineering. On those very first few days, I was well informed by the members of the Graduate School, supervisors and close friends about the role of publication and its importance in academia. Therefore, I prepared myself to put all my effort and focus to conduct a fruitful journey. I started with literature review. I reviewed and summarised 250 journal papers on the first three months of my PhD. The revision provided a great understanding on the topic of my project. Based on the literature review, I became clear about the basic requirements of my project including the materials, tools, instruments and the tests that I had to conduct. Later, I ordered, collected and prepared the requirements to securely turn on the lights of the lab and tackle the challenges.
During this period, I was in the lab running the experiments one after the other, preparing journal papers and at the same time participating in different local and international competitions. Thankfully, I was honoured to collect quite a number of valuable awards during this period. I received many first-place awards which I believe was the result of my passion generated in the lab. The greatest award that I received in my first year was a travel fund by the Faculty of Engineering which provided me the opportunity to visit the UK. During this visit, I met quite a number of academic and industry members in the UK. It was at this stage that I believed in the quote “hard work pays off”. There were many nights that I had to sleep in the office and didn’t have the time to reach my bed even though I was staying on campus. I skipped meals to prepare samples in the lab. It was all about the attention that I was getting from outside of the lab. This included the attention in conferences, academic and industries. The days passed and the experiences and the memories became treasures.
The story came to a historical ending on 5th January 2017. I passed my viva. Prior to it, many people encouraged me to relax and enjoy it, including my supervisors and friends. To prevent any stress or pressure, my family didn’t know about the date of my viva until the moment that I called them and said: I passed my viva! The joy in that ten minutes’ conversation was enough for me to forget all the hardships and remember the good days. It was only after that conversation that I felt I need to find a new lab to keep the lights on and continue my journey. Not giving up was the best lesson that I learnt in my three years of PhD. After all, I need to thank the University for providing me the opportunity to believe in myself and build a better future.
Such a nice life story!