Undergraduate Summer Scholarship Scheme 

“My time at the ICR has been an amazing and valuable experience that has taught me many skills that will help me through the rest of my time at university and for future research work. From the first day I was welcomed into the team and included in group activities and socials, which greatly added to the experience. During my 8 week project [...] I gained synthetic chemistry skills[...]very commonly used in medicinal chemistry, I feel more confident for future independent lab work. Through presentations in group meetings, I was able to practice and improve my scientific communication and presentation skills, this is something I found very helpful as I had no previous experience of presenting to a group. I was able to get a taste of what independent research would be like and I feel more prepared to pursue a PhD in organic chemistry after the amazing support and supervision I was given. It was amazing to be able to delve into a topic and think about the chemistry behind something new to me. Through writing up a report I was able to gain experience in reviewing literature and formulating my results in a clear and concise way. I was given constant support and encouragement [...] which helped me improve my scientific writing. It was a pleasure to experience what it’s like to work at the ICR and lean about new and exciting chemistry beyond what I have learnt at university through attending seminars, listening to guest speakers and attending career round tables. I was able to attend the annual ICR conference which enabled me to lean about the real impact that the ICR has and to lean about areas in biology and biochemistry, increasing my appreciation for the multidisciplinary work that goes into cancer research. It was a pleasure to be part of such a supportive and lovely team. I learnt so much and I’m very grateful for their support and guidance. This project has given me such valuable skills and means I can continue with my studies with more confidence in and out the lab.”  - Hannah Dean-Wright

 

“Being a part of team with such a wide range of expertise broadened my scientific expertise and clearly demonstrated the structure of academic research. By having regular check-ins and delivering weekly updates in the lab meetings, I was able to gain both valuable feedback on the work I was producing and suggestions for the next steps, providing me with a sense of direction with my research. I gained extensive skills in data manipulation such as employing approximate string matching, designing mixed effect models and producing tailored analytics reports. Additionally, scheduling regular meetings to understand the context, goals and requirements of the project provided a great insight into the data analyst workflow. One of the highlights of the programme was attending a lab conference in Oxford, where I got to both explore the city and learn about the research pursued by other academics in oesophageal cancer, treatment resistance in HNSCC and the roles of specific genes in T-cell mediated immunity. Getting to engage with the wider scientific community via the conference was a great opportunity and an insightful experience into academic life. Overall, I would sincerely recommend the summer studentship programme to anyone interested in pursuing a scientific career whether in industry or academia. I will be forever grateful to both my mentor and wider team for making my summer with the ICR such an excellent experience. Lastly, thank you to the ICR for making this summer studentship possible, both for me and for every other student who took part.”  -  Sailikitha Gokavarapu