And so the circle of life at Blogger HQ has come full circle as one team of bloggers leave for pastures new, another group of bloggers begin! We would like to thank the previous team for all their hard work and dedication to the blog and hope we can follow in their footsteps and continue to post great advice and information for all our readers. A few posts have already gone out by some of the new bloggers so we hope you’re already getting to know us better, but to help things along, here’s a quick introduction from each of the new team members.

Andreea is a third year PhD candidate in the Adam Smith Business School. Her research is looking at whether people who learn how to grow food integrate that knowledge in their food consumption activities. She is also interested in how people learning about food growing in urban community gardens engage with sustainability concerns. This involves speaking to a lot of people who grow food and visiting all of Glasgow’s community gardens - there’s actually quite a few of them, which is great! Andreea has been living in Glasgow for over seven years. She loves the city and is always over-excited to talk about the great things happening around town. To take her mind of her work she enjoys getting creative with activities such as jewellery making, printmaking and DIY projects. She is a very keen cook and loves to browse Glasgow’s many speciality food shops. She also likes to keep active when possible as she knows it’s important to look after yourself!

Bianca is a third year PhD candidate in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and spends her research time using electron microscopes to look at tiny particles forming in steels. She thoroughly loved her time as a Glasgow undergraduate so much that she decided to stay in Glasgow for her PhD as well! In her spare time, Bianca likes to go hillwalking around Scotland, bake way too many cakes and make friends with as many animals as she can. She loves talking and writing about her science communications stints, from organising Pint of Science to teaching physics workshops for mental health charities. She hopes to write lots about mental health and work-life balance as a graduate student, but also about her favourite things to do around Scotland that other people might find fun!

Elli is doing her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies on UofG’s Dumfries campus (although truth be told, she is moving up to Glasgow very soon and can’t wait!). In her PhD she’s looking at the DIY and Maker movement and how people making things can potentially affect the environment. But it really isn’t easy! Every time she reads about people making things she just wants to stop reading about it and go and make something herself! If she does have the time, she loves to sew her own clothes (well tries to anyway). She would love to be able to learn more about electronics and coding and then combine that with sewing to make wearable electronics. But that’s a far-off dream at the moment. She’s one of those people that takes part in loads of things – life is just too short to not take advantage of all the possibilities out there. So, she basically never has time for anything, but loves the things she does. Self-care is a top priority for her to keep the balance between all her commitments. That’s includes getting stuck in a good jigsaw puzzle, spending time goofing around with her flatmates or listening to jazz music.

Rob is a third year PhD candidate based at the UofG’s Garscube campus. In his PhD, Rob uses functional MRI to look at changes occurring in the brain resulting from hypertension and diabetes. Originally from South Wales, Rob is no stranger to wet weather – it’s a small price to pay for all the green rolling hills and mountains. Having grown up surrounded by such greenery, Rob wasn’t always a huge fan of city living but Glasgow has won him over with how well it combines city life with parks and green spaces – it’s the best of both worlds! In his spare time, Rob loves to explore all the different parks that Glasgow has to offer however Kelvin Grove Park and Pollok Country Park are among his favourites. Rob also likes to keep fit and active by going on the occasional run which is further supplemented by spending most of his evenings and weekends chasing around his 18 month old toddler. Rob hopes to write about careers and life after the PhD as well as advice for juggling the demands of work and family life.

Robyn is a pint-sized zoology fanatic originally from the quiet and sunny Isle of Wight, but is now converted to urban life after living in the vibrant city of Glasgow since 2015. For her PhD, she studies biological rhythms of wild birds and carries out fieldwork every spring in the nest box system up at the university’s field station, the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE), Loch Lomond.  For her research, she is investigating the mechanisms behind circadian clocks “in the wild” and how environmental factors, such as light pollution or parasitic disease, have an impact on the clocks. When not working on her PhD, Robyn is a keen science communicator over on Instagram and Twitter, and also runs a zoology blog called Pixie Zoologist. She enjoys doing science outreach activities, swimming, illustration, attempting to learn Spanish and watching Attenborough documentaries. This year on the PGR blog, Robyn is hoping to write about her experiences during the PhD such as breaking her ankle shortly before her second field season started, what happens when your main supervisor moves to another country, and struggles relating to stress and mental health.

Victoria left behind 18 years as a university lecturer in 2015, moving from North Carolina to Scotland to engage full time with her research and writing. Her critical research and creative writing focus on the impact of inherited narratives on identity (re)construction, especially where queer and illness narratives intermingle. Her short fiction can be found most recently in Women and Words; Vol IV, From Glasgow to Saturn, and the dangerouswomenproject.org. She also conducts creative writing workshops for a variety of events and conferences, including the Transatlantic Women’s Literary Series and the SCCSG (Scottish Conference of Cancer Survivor Groups). Victoria is currently focused on completing her debut novel, a fictionalized memoir in which a derelict debutante struggling with a chronic illness is rescued by Dobermans and drag queens. A cancer survivor with a wicked sense of humour, Victoria is a lover of all dogs, cigars, books, fine dining, beach houses, art, music, jigsaw puzzles, and Netflix. Her pet peeves are seahorse birdbaths, cypress clocks, and velvet paintings of Elvis.

So thats us! We're excited to share our thoughts, experiences and advice with you over the coming year to help you make the most out of your PGR experience. Remember, don't be a stranger, we'd love to hear from you too so feel free to comment on our posts and reach out to us on social media!

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