Francis Amrit

Graduate profile

Currently a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh having completed his PhD at Dr Robin May’s laboratory at the School of Biosciences.

Prior to this I completed my bachelors degree from Bangalore University, India and my masters degree from Sheffield Hallam University, UK. I also managed to squeeze a year in industry working as a Research Associate in between my masters and the start of my PhD at the York Science Park, UK.

Since my program of study was a PhD, most of my work was lab based. However, this also involved a lot of theoretical and computer based work. Also the numerous courses offered at the University are excellent, helping you to develop as an all-round professional. The confidence gained through these courses helped me win several prizes including bringing home the first prize to Biosciences at the Graduate School Research Symposium.

During my course I was fortunate to travel twice to the USA to attend international conferences where I had the pleasure of giving a talk and presenting a poster. This exposed me to a lot of science and everything to do around science at an international level. The scientific publications through this course along with all the knowledge and expertise gained has helped me lay the basis of my career as a scientist.

Like all beginnings, I was a little nervous about the whole move to Birmingham. However, the multicultural international environment at the University, combined with its history and hospitality made the entire experience a pleasure. The first year consisted of a lot of exploring and fun at Birmingham.

Given that the University of Birmingham ranks ranks very highly, there is absolutely no doubt about the impact of the degree I hope to obtain. I have definitely grown as a professional at various levels and hopefully this will help me go places in the future.

The campus

The University of Birmingham is by far one of the best campus universities I have been to. The entire setup with its historical redbrick buildings to the modern ones alongside lush green lawns gives the entire place an excellent feel ideal for studying and research. Also the University centre with its shops, pub and the frequently occurring farmers market with the accessibility to a train station on campus that can get you into the city in a few minutes makes it even better. The campus is one of the best features of the University.  

Living at Birmingham has been a lot of fun. There were no problems at all with regards to settling in as an international student. Through the course I made a lot of friends in the department and across the University and it has been a great experience getting to meet and know people from various international backgrounds.

I would strongly recommend mingling and making friends with students from various backgrounds. Also you may find that a few things with regards to general university functioning may work in a different way here and it is a very good idea to get to know about this from your supervisor/tutor.

I am hoping to continue my career as a Postdoctoral research Scientist for a few years after which I want to return home to India to pursue a scientific career along with a leg in politics to do my bit in helping shape and drive the future.