Richard Crossland
Richard Crossland,
Multidisciplinary Centre of Integrative Biology,
The University of Nottingham,
Sutton Bonington, LE12 5RD.
I have just completed an MSc in Bioinformatics and Systems biology at Newcastle University and have developed my modelling experience during a six-month research project on my idea for a linear DNA clock (http://www.students.ncl.ac.uk/richard.crossland/). I am motivated to study this PhD as an extension of interests gained in recent modules and through independent study - although I do hope it will get me a job one day! Generally speaking, despite being a biologist by training, I must admit that I find the pleasure of analysis and scientific creativity much more motivating than biological knowledge per se and, despite my successes, I prefer to keep any lab work to a minimum. Thus computer modelling clearly fits well with my personality. My favourite programming language is definitely Java and I used this extensively alongside R during my research project. Unfortunately I am quite impatient with many tools (I like to call them 'black boxes') so I may prefer to rewrite them myself especially if doing so is conducive to my understanding of things intuitively-for which I am prepared to invest a little extra effort to achieve. It will be strange this year because there will be significant overlap between some of my personal interests and the PhD. But in fact, I do study completely unrelated topics, e.g. English grammar. I will try to keep the productivity of these going by building on my success in the closing months of last year to keep a temporal, physical and emotional distance between the two. Actually, I think that I can really tighten my productivity by working smartly, especially by using computers to help me along the way!
For more recent information about Dov Stekel's research group and latest news, please click on the following website: Dov Stekel's Laboratory.
Contact Richard Crossland: email