Meet student Patrick Garfjeld Roberts

What year are you and what is your PhD on?

I am a full time 2nd year DPhil student taking time out of surgical training. My research is on surgical simulation, looking at how we can measure the effect of simulation training on real operations, and from that how to make surgical training more effective overall.

What is your day-to-day like? What does your research involve?

I have a lot of variety in my work, and though there are a few fixed commitments in the week, there is a fair bit of flexibility mot of the time. Broadly, I'll be in the simulation lab either training participants or developing new simulation models, in the operating theatre with participants after simulation training, coordinating with out collaborators in other departments, and once in a while I even get time to analyse my data. The University also has a huge number of courses and extra-curricular activities to get involved in, and the flexibility of research means you can get so much more out of your day that just your day job.

What is your background? And what brought you to a DPhil at NDORMS, Oxford? 

I was a medical student here, and did some of my core surgical training locally once I graduated. Having got involved with a few research projects during my clinical work, it piqued my interest in taking a bit of time out of training to do a higher degree.

What is it like to be a DPhil student at NDORMS?

NDORMS is a pretty special place. You’ve got clinicians, engineers, statisticians, vets and more all working on different projects. There is a very social atmosphere, and learning about other teams projects is at the least fascinating, and can more often than not lead to insights into your own work, or even potential collaboration: all from a chance chat over coffee!