Late-Night Talk: Angelo Robles. What Counts As Proof When Science Is Uncertain

Students and Graduates!

Angelo Robles is a final-year PhD candidate from Swansea University, researching brain lipids from zebrafish to study Alzheimer's.

Follow Angelo's social media: Instagram: @gelo_ross_drew

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-ross-andrew-v-robles-689144144/

Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!

Students and Graduates!

This is a mid-roll from my late-night talk with Ilana Horwitz, PhD, about her book The Entrepreneurial Scholar. A New Mindset for Success in Academia and Beyond. Use the code IMH20 when buying her book at Princeton Univ Press

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Students and graduates,

Have a break from this session by hearing a late-night talk I had with Michael Gerharz, PhD, about the impact of communication in your PhD and in public.

Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!

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Students and graduates!

This is a pod-roll from a solo session of PhD Lounge from the Iceberg explained series. Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!

Students and Graduates!

This is my podroll with one of my guests Nikita Bedov, a PhD in Biology.

Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!

Transcript

Welcome And Catching Up

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Angelo Hobbles, welcome to PhD Launch, and we finally sit down to to have a chat after some time of uh of trying, oh, let's have a talk. It's been a while, let's try and have a talk. I think they've been going around on this since last year, I'd say. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So you said already you were doing having an experiment research tomorrow. So tell me a bit more about that.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

And yeah, um, so um we're trying to uh attract DNA from Zebafish at the moment. So we're trying to uh prove that the gene is actually in the present in Zebafish, so at the moment we're just tracking preliminary experiments actually to confirm before uh proceeding ahead with the further experiments. Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

As a person who is not knowledgeable on science and all those technical terms, yeah. Just explaining me like in a simple terms and wondering if if it is a a long-term research experiment that you've been doing so uh since the beginning of your PhD or in your final stages? Oh I'm on I'm currently on my final stretch of my PhD now.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

So um so what we're doing right now is since zebra um it's not really a common knowledge, but in our field, um zebrafish is considered like a model organism. Yes and specifically it shares uh a big chunk of homologous uh DNA with uh humans as well. Um what we're trying to do right now is uh uh edit not necessarily edit, but modulate the plasmologen levels within a zebrafish via modulating the genes affecting that plasmologen. For example, uh far one or pets, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

So it's got can uh of a complicated process then?

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, it's a comp it's a complicated process in a uh in a way, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

In a way, so how how is it?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Um so FAR1 is the gene that um modulates uh plasmologen biosynthesis. So plasmologen is a type of lipid um that is important in biological membranes, uh specifically in uh in all sorts. Oh, I forgot what I'm saying now. Can you read the question again? Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

So the with the current research is a current experiment, you're doing it. Yeah. If you had is it a long-term one, is it at the final set is that around the final stages? Oh, is it yeah, it's it's the final stages, yeah. Yeah, and what what did you have so far around that? Any any prior knowledge or any research-based evidence around it? I'm just trying to shaping up the question around.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Yeah, yeah. So uh at the moment, um so my PhD has like two goals. So the first goal is to prove that they are plasmology and zebrafish, because the literature says that um there's confounding evidence that the plasmologens even exist. So you need to prove first that they are plasmologist and zebrafish. So we've I've actually proven that they are plasmologist and zebrafish within the first few months of my PhD. And right now it's just characterizing the the lipid landscape uh in zebrafish because it's not um it's not fully characterized yet.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

And that's where we're going through as well. And on the final stages, we'll trying to we'll try to um modulate these lipids as if it uh models or even recapitulates the disease models.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Sounds like a uh a complicated process in gathering all the all the evidence and throughout those research experiments, including the one that you will have tomorrow, you know, to something to maybe to find something even more complex, or will be eventually something that is easygoing then?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, hopefully it will be easygoing by then, but um, but yeah, just uh stretching the final experiments now.

From Genetics To Lipidomics

SPEAKER_00 7:50

So was what is what is your educational background and how and how did it how did it like uh lead towards your PhD? Because you said your PhD is in medicine, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Uh technically in not necessarily in medicine, but more on like clinical um research. So my background is on uh medical genetics, uh genomics, and then I pivoted into um neuroscience, uh specifically in area of end epidomics. So it's a study of lipids.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

The study of lipids, yeah. Could you elaborate a bit more?

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Um yeah, so um study of lipids, um, for example, uh cholesterol is a type of lipid found in your heart. Um a lot of people say cholesterol is bad for your health. Um no, I say it's quite good, uh, cholesterol.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Um so um cholesterol nowadays and say like um I'm eating ultra-processed foods and all that.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

There's there's good cholesterol and there's bad cholesterol for you. So um there are there are type of there are species of lipids that are you know uh are good for your incestors or bad for you. You know, um sometimes less is more, um anything in excess um is always a poison in your body. Um that's that's also the same applies to lipids as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Okay. So the background that you have matches with what you're currently doing then? In a sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Um so my background is purely on genetics and uh genomics. I don't have necessarily have any experience in in my current PhD, since the my PhD is uh relies heavily uh heavily on mass spectrometry, so it's theory uh chemistry, but yeah. So how did you manage then to be successful, uh a successful uh applicant and become accepted to in the case of the so my final project of my bachelor's uh degree uh involves Alzheimer's disease risk genes, and so that's that kind of opened uh my door towards uh neuroscience, neurodegenerative diseases since Alzheimer's and uh multiple uh Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis as well. Um my master's degree of um my project is involved with uh African torquoise skillifish. So that and it's another door that opened me towards studying model organisms. Okay. And I kind of married the idea between my project, between my bachelor's degree and my master's degree, and then uh towards my PhD, uh, which is uh entitled uh investigating the plasmology and lipid and zebrafish development. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

So then for you, in your in your view, it was an easy process then to because with all the background that you had and some of the not some of the prior knowledge from your bachelor's in getting into a completely different PhD, uh into a PhD in a completely different subject, then for you, was it something uh easy, easygoing, or is it or had some its complications uh in the it wasn't um it wasn't um uh necessarily complicated in a way.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Um it was daunting at first, the idea of studying a completely like different field. Uh-huh. But once you've got um the fundamentals correct, and the transition should be relatively um um I'd say uh doable in a way.

Funding And Juggling Work

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Global. Yeah, um that's sound it's so in all fairness, it had some its um complications, but then also had its some its uh advantages, yeah. Yeah, so and uh how would you manage to get some funding? Was it is was this a funded project? Yeah, it's a product project, it's a scholarship, yeah. Because I remember when we when we're talking, we were talking about uh when you applied for a PhD, when you when you used to work at Nando's are still currently working, yeah. And then say we're talking about PhD, PhD, and then say, okay, fuck fuck, you need to apply for one. And so we're talking about this, and then we're saying about medicine or something related to or medicine related as you were saying, and okay, you managed to apply, but then you applied for fund is it was a fun it's a funded PhD position. It was a funded position, yeah. Right, yeah, but at the same time, you were still working, obviously on a part-time basis, as you said to me. Yeah, how would you manage then? How did you manage to leverage your full-time uh PhD and your employability at a part-time part-time job at the time?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Um, so juggling between jobs um in an academic setting, um, you know it's not as everyone thinks is easy. Um as well. Uh for me, it came to me naturally in a way because I was already working at Lando so during my bachelor's in my first year in 2019, and you know, while juggling Lando's table tennis and studies as well. Um, it came to me naturally. Uh it wasn't easy at the beginning since um it was you have to manage your time, you have to have discipline as well. Um so I leverage it in a way that I can balance things. So not necessarily, oh, I'm just gonna do um research all the time, but also have the time to or be flexible to do other stuff as well, extracurricular activities that can actually benefit you to be more to become more productive in a way.

When Results Look Like Noise

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Okay, and so it was it wasn't easy at the first, and then so we had to abdicate from from your current from your position at Nando's yeah, uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

So I I had to adapt, yeah. Now I was like, okay, um I've got I've got a scholarship money, and I was like, okay, there was no point working in Nando's at that time, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

So and how then do you m are you able to manage now? So you're still managing the table tennis society?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Um I'm not I'm not in a um yeah, I'm not in a committee anymore. Um last year was my final well as president, and I'm still the season's finished now, so I'm still a player, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Will you be able to play at varsity this year?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, um I'm actually the the captain of uh the varsity I was assigned to, so it's my third time playing now. But yeah, we haven't yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

So it's saying I'm going to play some table tennis, and then all of a sudden comes up uh an issue on your PhD and you have to deal professionally while playing some table tennis. So could you do this in your lab work in in your research experiments? So I'm doing this using my own one hand, my not dominant hand, to work on the research while practicing some practicing some uh some shots.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Um can do, yeah, because one of our friends, um Peter, who's um who's currently doing a PhD in uh machine learning in a way. Um I think I remember one of his bachelor's project was uh something related to uh table tennis shots in a way. So it's it's definitely doable, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

So how did how did that work?

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Uh I can't remember the full details, but it's something related to the speed of the ball, something like that, because it's table tennis is one of the fastest like um sports in the world, um compared to like the hand-eye coordination and in the split decision thing uh making as well. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

No, I do feel that um we've played before, uh meeting we had a few matches, yeah, and uh it's been a while because I used to play ping pong as well, but not in um in a federation state, uh federation-wise. Um just it was like playing football with with the kid with school uh schoolboys, and uh that was it for me in that case. But uh I do feel miss uh on playing table tennis. Well, I'm maybe I'm still on time, but uh just given the time constraints we still need to leverage many stuff at the moment. Yeah. So now I finish my PhD and then trying to find a seeker job, dedicate to PhD lounge, work now, and it's many stuff at the same time. So uh in your research, did you have any any negative moments that you felt that I don't want to for to fucking work in this thing anymore and and just leave it by the other day, or is any other reason and leave it for tomorrow in terms in in regards to a complex experiment that you had to dealt with?

Mass Spectrometry And Sample Timelines

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Yeah, um so just to uh reiterate again, so my PhD focuses on um brain lipids, so specifically a type of colasmalogens, which are really important for brain function and are known to be reduced in conditions like Alzheimer's. So um, I think one of the biggest challenges was that the data didn't always behave the way we expected. Okay. Uh for example, um uh certain lipids we were trying to detect were either very low in abundance or masked by other signals. And at the time, it wasn't even clear if what we're seeing was real or just noise or contamination. So that uncertainty can be quite frustrating, especially when you're trying to prove something that's already debated in the field. I'm sure you've got some challenges as well when you're debating in your field as well, you know, archaeology and history. Um, so yeah, there were definitely moments where I started stared all the data and thinking, you know, this either means something really interesting or absolutely like nothing at all, complete waste of my time. So um yeah, what what what that taught me was to be much more um rigorous and critical with my data. So instead of relying on a single piece of evidence, I started combining multiple layers like fragmentation patterns or internal standards and developmental trends or any uh terminology terminology that is relevant to your field to build a stronger case. So in the end, that actually made the findings more robust. So it shifted my mindset from finding a signal or finding a signal that actually proves that there's that lipid in a way, to really proving it's biologically meaningful.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

How long does it does it take to conduct research experiments?

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Um so for my area uh in lipidomics, it um when you've so in my first year, so it's just me just purely training uh the experiment, lipid extraction on the samples. Um I was just a complete newbie, don't know what, don't know what I'm doing. Uh that took me at least three days to run one lipid extraction to follow the protocol. Um since I've got a hang of it, it should last at least like one day, depending on how many samples you're dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

And then you have and then reporting those to your devices.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yes, yeah. So yes. So lipid extraction, and then once you've got the lipids, we inject them into the machine. So I'm using a high resolution mass spectrometry to track these lipids during development and in the adult brain. So yeah, the exciting part is that we're starting to see evidence not only that they are present, but that they change in very specific ways during key stages like brain development.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Well, for me, in my for me, this is absolutely new. I don't know about anything about lipids and uh doing some of these research experiments, so it's just not dealing with literature. The only great thing is you you have to deal with um microscopes and other state-of-the-art technology then.

Supervisors Lab Meetings And Feedback

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah, yeah. So um microscopes, yes. Um for example, if um so my job as well is to collect uh grow zebrafish and collect zebrafish as well. And the first thing we need to do is So my ex the whole experiment depends on me getting enough zebrafish just to run more experiments. So um what my experiment, I would need to be having enough zebrafish to run the experiments. So currently I have 440 uh zebrafish. So the the experiments the experiments not that hard, but uh I think it's very time consuming. Say, for example, if you're dealing like five to ten zebrafish, uh it's doable within now, but if you're dealing within the hundreds, uh it could easily take one hour or uh one day as well. So I think last week I was collecting zebrafish, my final collection, it took me at least um four hours just purely collection. So four hours. Wow. Yeah, just just purely by uh collection. So it depends, it depends really on the amount of or number of samples that you're dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Damn, I can't I can imagine how would be uh a day of a PhD in uh in your field and trying to make those experiences that can be quite stressful and say like this, fuck I don't want to do this anymore.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, that's why like I think time management is really important as well, speaking of planning, so um, especially with zebrafish, it's um so I'm studying the uh developmental time points with in zebrafish, so from uh one hour post-fertilization or 50% epi body all the way to uh the adult stages. So I have to collect certain time points. Say, for example, if I set up the zebrafish on uh Tuesday night, I need to collect the eggs on Wednesday morning and then checking again on the late afternoon just to see has the eggs uh reached a viable stage that I can collect. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

So could you tell us a time where you presented some of the results to your PhD advisors, and then what happened afterwards? Was it a negative reception from the from your supervisor or advisor, or was that okay?

SPEAKER_01 28:05

No, it was definitely yeah, it was definitely okay. Um, it was definitely uh very supportive and very constructive. Um try my best to have results every time I report, even if it's like a small update, because it's very, very helpful to me in a way. Um yeah, there's there was nothing negative about it as well because as you know, if postgrads as well, uh masters or a PhD, you'd always want to have a good communication with your supervisor.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Yes, that's true. Yeah, but then uh that communication, how do you do you practice, do you practice it, or you just like natural, natural, and then if there's something that fails, would what's what you learn from that, and how does your supervisors uh give you advice on okay look on this way and look in this way? Yeah, it might be completely different from the advice I get from my supervisors that he'll my both of them they advise me to okay, you could research this specific volume which is not here, but you can also order or order it online or check all the libraries. And they they they they for me in my case, they provide me a lot of they've they've provided me a lot of uh great insights. So yeah, I wonder if in uh in medicine field or sp or relate and related uh is the same or quite um medical-ish approach.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Yeah, so um we have regular lab meetings as well. So, say for example, if I presented my own research or recent experiment, everyone can chip in. Okay. So I can I can say my piece, the other lab members can say their piece, my supervisor can say his piece as well. So everyone's uh chipping in on the feedback. So it's and that to me like is an invaluable source as well. I it also practices as well on public speaking, um sharing experiment um sharing results to everyone as well.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Have you tried to uh engage your research publicly?

Conferences Networking And Speaking

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Yes, yeah, yeah. Um I've attended I've attended a couple of conferences um both internationally and uh domestically so my first my first conference was an international one actually um it was in spain uh no not in spain sorry it was it was in uh it was in italy okay where yeah whereabouts in italy um i should i should remember this i should remember this it was in tuscany it was in tuscany i don't know why the tuscany region yes it was in tuscany yes i don't know why um i wasn't remembering but yeah it was Tuscany it was it was literally on the day of my birthday as well okay yeah so it was a big it was a big deal yeah it was in Tuscany because yeah at at that time it was like a few months in in my PhD in my first year of a PhD and my supervisors just encouraged me to apply yeah and then yeah long and bolt I got accepted by it so yeah it was it was dumb thing at first but it to me it it came naturally because if you know your research inside and out then speaking about it should be should be um I'd say not hard I'd say you should know yeah I think also that that is a great that is a great insight that you provide because because knowing your research inside out is a big advantage.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Yeah I also say from my experience because I br I had a background in public speaking my during my bachelors and I used those transfer dose skills into into my PhD and the my first conference my advice my supervisor didn't advise it was me who took the who took the initiative and my first conference was online and it was in in Malta and uh yeah and uh in a it's kind of a like a um a symposium so to speak but it was like in a in a conference university you know conference academic conference style sorry yeah and it was it was interesting to know uh how people listen to you uh how deep you are in your research and telling that to your not to a non-specialist audience and yeah I think I think it was great great there's all great experiences and you can bring a lot of insightful knowledge from other people you can apply into your research. Did you did you have that or in terms of uh what's when you presented your research at in Italy and other ones as well whilst you were hearing other ones did you did you take something insightful from from the other speakers?

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Yeah definitely um they were giving um constructive feedback on my data um so in the conferences it's all about just listening to what they're trying to say in a way both academically and uh non-academically um it's all about um connections collaborations um networking as well yeah um yeah um I'd say in terms of um so what what's helpful for me is that I always say to myself like oh I know nothing about Hemriton so it's you just absorb um information from everyone yeah even though you think it's not helpful it's it's still gonna help you in a way.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Then again it and and it will be useful for a later stage when when working independently so to speak or working in a in a in a research lab as well. How is it your and how is it your relationship with with the other PhDs that you work alongside them within a research lab?

Final Year Choices Viva And Jobs

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Yeah they're they're okay. So um we don't know we don't usually talk that much because um we're we're very busy at the moment so he's always doing with his own stuff and I am dealing with my own stuff so we we occasionally talk if there's some um some problem needs to be addressed or just a catch up really but yeah it's just say hey I'm doing this research and I can't talk to you right now then I'm going yeah that's basically it that's basically it so back back to the conferences do you have any upcoming one or so I've done for now because um in my first year and second year I've attended a couple of conferences okay so I'm now I'm at my sensitive stage of my PhD um which one so so far nothing planned yet for conferences now. Which one did you I know this sounds like risky but which one did you enjoy the most of all the conferences that you've uh spoke at oh I think uh it was definitely the international one because um I uh attended the Gordon Research Conferences so it was a bit in the forefront in my field so I was very lucky that I've been able to attend that as well. Um you know researchers all around the world you know people that wrote my textbooks actually attended there it's just a grateful opportunity to be able to attend such a you know prestigious conference such as that and yeah I'd say easily uh the Gordon conference in in Tuscany it's then you had the t the chance to um taste some of the wines of the region then yeah definitely because they're really good because they're really good did you also have the opportunity to go to Florence um during during the time no it was just uh in Tuscany and uh Pisa because Florence is it is in the the Tuscany region. Yeah so that's why I was asking you yeah so um if you I've had I visited Florence before but okay you know as as a holiday but during the conference I think we just visited Pisa and that's it really nice one then uh tell me this if you if you could go back to your first year what would you have done differently um I think I would focus much earlier in the bigger picture instead of getting lost in small technical uh details so I think in the beginning I spent a lot of time trying to perfect the methods without fully thinking about how everything connects to the main research question.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

Um yeah I think second as well um I'd also start data analysis earlier even with imperfect data because that's where you really begin to understand your project even though you know the data is a bit you know not clean or anything it's still telling you a lot on that data. So it's a it's about navigate it's about navigating when things don't go as planned.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

So right now that's that's that's insightful as as as we said previously learning from learning from what you've done learning from the mistakes and also navigating throughout those you know to leverage a situation leverage a situation to reach to reach a positive outcome then yeah for sure yeah for sure the the opportunity wouldn't present itself if you weren't capable so yeah so do you have any upcoming things just or just submitting completely the PhD and then preparing yourself for the vivo or you don't or how I wonder how would a a vivo woke in the medical uh in the medical field would look like do you have any knowledge of it or have you heard I don't have any no I don't have any knowledge about it but I do heard a bit about it.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Okay so I think they're gonna assign a chair outside your school yes and I think a secondary one. Do you have a risk to share?

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Um I mean I I know a few stories where they're they successfully become a doctor but in detail no I think I think there's the b this is the best thing and doing something that you like and some of many of the students I don't know I think give it effects to the majority of us as candidates and I want to have a PhD so that everyone can call me a doctor or having the PhD title right next to your yeah to your surname. I wonder if that would be your mindset or just I want just to gather some knowledge obviously and then apply that later to me it's uh having you know the PhD in your name later I think it's just a bonus for me.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Like I wouldn't um obviously it's nice but at the same time I just point I just I just hope I get a job after this so but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Have you done something in between your PhD? I know you did you were the the president of the Table Tennis Society before yeah have you done some teaching and note note taking on any any sort of oh no um so during my bachelors and masters I did like note taking yeah and I'm I'm still currently a C uh a T senior teaching assistant so assisting at uh practical stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

But um something professionally formal uh no I think I wouldn't have that time to juggle like a professional job whilst um doing experiment in a way.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

You just you have to prepare yourself for what's coming afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Yeah yeah yeah yeah I think I yeah I think it's just a sensitive time so uh so I I even said to my family as well like oh please don't invite me to any holidays at the moment because I just need the time. Yeah. So how how how is how your parents understand your Yeah they understand yeah because it's it's just a it's such a precarious situation as well like you know they wouldn't want them they wouldn't want to affect my studies as well so I mean I just gave them a heads up in advance I was like yeah yeah they're completely fine with it.

Sharing Research And Keeping Balance

SPEAKER_00 40:34

So then for day not I'd say this year yes but at these final hurdles of your PhD I don't I'd say I can't go to Manchester. Oh um I wouldn't necessarily I think maybe yeah I'd I'll still go to Manchester but nothing too major I'd say like going abroad yeah so I I think just like flying flying or go no not flying sorry just the traveling locally first yeah and then uh so for the future would you consider going we we've been talking a lot of this but would you consider getting into a postdoc or you want to go just jump straight into an industry yeah I'm considering I'm considering to do um at least becoming a postdoc or anything uh something related um to laboratories and hopefully if I've got the luxury to to be able to pivot into industry because I'm really enjoying the the research aspect of my field and yeah do you still maintain your uh online presence then to share your research um I'm not necessarily like posting that much related to my research right um I think it's I think it's because of like data sensitive something like that but um yeah I mean from time to time I just post like updates on Instagram story and that's it really like nothing too major related to table tinners uh loads of table tennis yeah but um not necessarily related to uh the PhD no so I've seen like some so many people that they post lots of stuff on a ph uh about their PhDs and their reports with such such elaboration uh I'd say for on LinkedIn many people who have their own PhDs they have their own businesses and they elaborate loads and loads of texts text like for just to get I don't know if it is a uh corporate validation if because it feels like Facebook for for corporates have you yeah have you noticed that before have you noticed yeah yeah yeah I mean there's nothing wrong with it as long as it's like appropriate I'd say say for example if you have um a job posting and stuff like that like I wouldn't post it on Instagram or anything like LinkedIn is definitely like an appropriate place for it.

Advice For New PhD Students

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Yeah yeah have you been surfing just just for curiosity have you been browsing yeah yeah browsing um in terms of in your field oh in my field yeah yeah yeah so uh like like on my feed there's always so always stuff about uh neuroscience lipidomics um whenever I find something helpful not only to me but to others as well I just immediately repost it as well do you have any other stories would you like to share about your uh your research um no not really they're all boring um I mean I'm I'm also boring so never mind in a way um no no nothing really that comes into mind no that's why I said it's important to have something outside like table uh PhD for me like for example table tennis so so that's that part is more easier to manage than was the beginning as you said it was a bit was it a bit hard wasn't it in the beginning it was a bit hard um in a way because I was just I don't know exactly how much work I should be needing uh to put especially on my training but I realized that yeah you need to do a lot of work because you know you got you know nothing about the field stuff like that sure so um I raised awareness to my supervisor that hey for at the time I was very active on my table tennis games so at least I'd say that every because you know the box uh games were occurring on Wednesday so there were times that I'm not gonna be available on uh Wednesday yeah so you know as long as you progress and you know my supervisor have been quite supportive of that balance as long as you're progressing and delivering results they understand that having that outlet makes you more productive in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Yeah I think that's I think that's the main po the main focus of the one of the main focuses of the of the PhD is to just keep keep yourself on track because they also want because supervisors also monitor that and they're also being evaluated by their own but the but the by the the head office of of the each in each university yes yeah definitely angel I think we can wrap up unless you have something to to say anything else about no that that's that's all okay for me that's all okay for me I mean yeah yeah yeah go on one no no it's okay what were we saying I was I was remembering this and just I was about to forget just you do you still remember that episode that that we that we had back when we was during covet and we're talking about about PhD how I was about to going to start in July 2020 and we're talking about that and we were taking the yellow mate yes you still remember that I still remember that yeah that that fucking dope head over there is like oh it's oh my god can I have some taste of this yeah yeah I remember that yeah it's near s near McDonald's yeah McDonald's uh like I think I think that's like nowadays nobody seemed to really care about that about sipping and um not saying in a in a sense of no person no drug addict or weed addict come and approach so I had a situation before I had a situation where they didn't say it anything yeah and then you cross them they were smoking weed and I was my mate crossing like nothing was in as well as the the police I think I I was sipping my mate once on the way home and I've passed by two police officers and I was and I look behind them and say I thought myself I think they didn't get they didn't they didn't detain me nah because I'm you know because I because the air by it's a bit it's it's can be it's confused looking yeah uh I think yeah it feels like but at the same time they would be confused with that and but I think at the same time they have been informed about those kind of kind of um not kind of alternative teas so to speak yeah because the Turkish shop where I buy my groceries they sell the erba mate as well yeah I'm pretty sure they got briefed on what the erba mate looks like because it yeah probably sure so unfortunately I can't take I can't sip it inside of a of a plane unless I can bring I can bring it with myself yeah I understand that would you would you buy some eventually I don't I find it too strong for me Arabate if I just find it too strong stronger than coffee so I I probably just take the coffee yeah yeah yeah it's like uh maybe like let me blend a bit of both and say no you you'll be tweaked like a like a guy who's who just sipped Cuban coffee yeah probably probably to be tweaking so Angelo uh thank you for for for your time could you share any advice for those who are thinking in undertaking a PhD or are about to start their PhDs yeah um so I think always remember that uh it's a marathon not a race yeah so uh be prepared for uncertainty that's probably the biggest thing because uh you know a PhD is about isn't about like following a clear path it's always about navigating when things don't go as planned and also don't isolate yourself you know talk to people lab mates collaborators set in conferences um go outside your comfort zone um and finally like focus on progress and not perfection because um I think small consistent steps matter more than waiting for everything to be perfect if you're waiting for everything to be perfect perfect then you'll be waiting for the rest of your life so yeah and I think that's a a well composed message to deliver to those who are and who want to uh study for a PhD and those who are about to start and hopefully the the PhD keeps evolving now many people are jump from their bachelors and go straight into into a PhD yeah and I think something something uh about around the PhD degree will come up in the future don't know maybe the it will be the degree of the future we don't know I've asked this question several times to many people and they say if they feel uncertain things others say I hope not but that's how it is so where students and graduates can follow you then also on um yeah so I have an I have an Instagram um jello underscore rough at true and I have a LinkedIn as well so you can just type in my name then it should pop up so and I'll definit I'll definitely do it and uh I mean for the students and graduates hearing it hearing this uh this topic if you want to do something around um medical field or medicine related shout out to Angelo Hobbles and uh he'll be happy to he'll be glad to help you out. And as for us is a wrap up Angelo thank you so much again and let's get let's catch up soon. Yeah I'm free basically from my PhD and just yeah doing other stuff. And for those who are tuning in thank you all for thank you all to you and it's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.