Young Joon Rhee

Young Joon Rhee, from South Korea, is currently studying for a PhD in Life Sciences.

Why did you choose to study at Dundee University?

My field of interest was environmental microbiology. And Prof. Gadd who is my current supervisor, is one of the most well-known environmental microbiologist in the world. That's why I applied for a PhD in Dundee University.

What is the best thing about your course and why?

I am doing what I always wanted to do. And the support from this university has been great. Most of the experiments I do require high end tech-machines and this university has it all (e.g. SEM, EDXA, AAS etc.) So I don't need to send my samples away for analysis, I can just do it with in my division.

What information do you think applicants need to know before starting this course?

First thing will be figuring out what exactly they want to study. In our division there are more than 7 labs and for the whole Life Sciences department, there are many more labs which work on different things.

What has been your best learning experience to date and why?

The best experience might be the training on the machines such as HPLC, AAS and XRPD. You don't get this kind of opportunity that often. Some of the labs I worked on before coming here lacked equipment and you often needed to send your sample to someplace else, and never had the chance to actually operate the machines yourself.

What has been your best university experience to date and why?

It should be the moment I got a good result on my research (which is going to be published soon).

What was your experience of settling into life in Dundee when you first arrived?

Initially, because I came him with my wife, it took a while to find a flat. Besides that, everything was really nice.

Do you have any advice for potential new students?

This is not like a PhD course in Korea which requires more than 5 years to finish it, here you only get 3 years (or 4 years). This has ups and downs, if you are jumping into a whole different scientific area, you better study the background before you start. Time flies really fast!

How did you find settling into life in the UK?

It's not that different from Korea. If you are from metropolitan cities (Kwuang-yuk si in Korean, which is bigger than normal cities in Korea) you will find more peaceful and calm surroundings here.