• Question: why is your current job Post-Doctoral Researcher

    Asked by s12hjlar to John on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: John Foster

      John Foster answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      After my A Levels at school, I went to university to get my first degree (an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry – the chemistry of all things biological). I then did a second degree called a PhD, here I did all my own research and produced a large report (about 300 pages!) on what I discovered. The D in PhD stands for doctor, and after getting this second degree I can call myself Dr.

      A post-doctoral researcher is the part of the job that comes after getting this PhD and it can last for around 6-8 years. At this stage I am working very hard to find out new and exciting things about biology e.g lung cancer.

      If I can find something very interesting that no-body else is looking at and prove that I have developed well as a researcher, then organisations such as charities and the government might give me some money. This money would be used to set up my own lab and I would become an Independent Researcher or a Lecturer – where I would also teach university students about science.

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