Student Stories : Gavin Murphy
Giving up his job in IT to go back to university to pursue postgraduate studies in Renewable Energy, was a major step for Gavin Murphy.
After seven years working as a software engineer for British Telecom, NHS Scotland and Alfred McAlpine, I was keen for a change in direction in my career. It was a big commitment to make to go back to studying full time, not least because of the drop in income! I was however very interested in renewables and felt my IT experience would tie in well therefore decided to apply for the MSc in Renewable Energy at Dundee. I thought the course was fantastic - very well structured and also suited to those in my position who had already had a career. As part of the course, I undertook an industry based placement at British Research Establishment (BRE),Scotland, a consultancy which specialises in the built environment and carries out research and testing services for clients in the public and private sector.
Although I originally intended to go straight into employment after the MSc I decided instead to take an industry based PhD through the BRE Centre of Excellence, due to the experience I had during my MSc course. My research involves a lot of modelling work, statistics and comparisons between assessment methods. The research work is closely related to that of BRE and I will be based almost full time with the company for the early part of his three-year PhD. Although a significant number of people doing a PhD will remain in academia, at this stage I feel I’m probably more likely to go back into industry at the end of it.
del.icio.us
digg
reddit
facebook
stumbleupon