Type of placement

This was a research visit to work in collaboration with Dr Ricardo Martinez-Garcia at the Centre for Advanced Systems in Görlitz, Germany.

Andrei’s reflections on the placement

Much has been achieved with this visit and more is expected to come from it.

For the moment, I have achieved exciting results on multiscale pattern formation on rings that we intend to extend to infinite domains. This includes the development of new methods for stochastic and deterministic analysis of populations with diversity of interacting radii, which opens doors for analysis of other systems with eco-evolutionary dynamics and multi-dimensional trait spaces. Ricardo and I are planning to finish working on this project and write a publication to be submitted in the next couple of months. I have also submitted an abstract to a conference to talk about this project.

In the process of obtaining results for my project with Ricardo, I have developed many other skills. This includes new analytical methods for the analysis of stochastic and deterministic systems (analysis of pattern formation) as well as other skills in numerical methods such as coding in C++/Fortran and the use of pseudo-spectral methods to solve partial differential equations numerically. I am also using their cluster to run code (which having used BALENA in Bath before has helped me with).

Additionally, I was asked to give a departmental seminar at CASUS and met academics afterwards to discuss my research and mathematical tools they had that will be useful for future research I might do. On the networking side, I have exchange knowledge on analytical tools and coding libraries for data analysis with other PhDs/postdocs in Ricardo’s group and the department.

My current plans are to keep working with Ricardo on this project, write an article for publication, and potentially work on collaborations with him and some of his collaborators afterwards.

Overall, the placement was highly beneficial for both my PhD and my career as a whole. It not only opened doors for me and my supervisors to collaborate with Ricardo and other academics at CASUS, but it also gave visibility to SAMBa and the University of Bath.

I’d highly recommend 2-3 months research visits to both students and supervisors. The duration is sufficient to kick-start a project that has the potential to turn into a paper, a collaboration, or grant proposal, whilst not too long to be detrimental to the student’s PhD research. During the placement, the student will be exposed to several networking opportunities and probably be invited to give a talk. All of these are highly valuable for potential job applications afterwards. It also gives the opportunity to get to know a place or research group. For supervisors, the student will be exposing their research to different institutions and groups, providing good visibility that might result in citations, collaborations, and grant proposals.

All in all, it has been a fruitful experience, and I’d be happy to recommend it to both students and supervisors.

Comments from Andrei’s supervisor:

This placement has been highly beneficial to Andrei in helping him to build his research independence and international networks.

The whole process worked very smoothly from my point of view, but that was mainly because Andrei organised everything for himself.

I would certainly recommend any student to explore opportunities like this in the future.