For only the second time in this series, we’re fortunate to be joined by someone I actually know in real life! And today that person is Huw, who I’ve had the pleasure of working with at Bristol.
Huw has been very generous in sharing his insights and experiences , so I’m excited to share the following discussion with you all!
You can find Huw on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Previous PhD Profiles are available here.
Please introduce yourself and your PhD topic
Hi everyone, I’m Huw. I did my PhD in Mathematics at the University of Bristol. I started in September 2019, submitted my thesis in September 2023 and graduated Summer 2024.
My PhD supervisor’s background is random matrix theory, which is a branch of mathematical physics concerned with the probability distributions induced by the eigenvalues of certain collections of random matrices.
The field of study initially concerned energy levels of electrons in atoms, but was eventually found to be good models for certain functions associated with prime numbers (an area my supervisor’s thesis pioneered!) Since then, the patterns of random matrix theory had been theorised to serve as good models for other physical models.
My PhD project was trying to use random matrix theory related distributions to model DNA replication, specifically replication origins on chromosomes. I also investigated other stochastic models (like crystal growth and polynuclear growth models) and their contrast with DNA replication models. Some of the calculations I did were analytical (i.e. pen and paper) but others were computer simulated.
Since my PhD I have transitioned into data science, working as a data scientist at the University of Bristol (in more of a generalist role) and I’m going to be starting a data science postdoc in a few months time!
PhD Applications
What is your background and why did you decide to do a PhD?
I did my MSc in Mathematics at the University of Bristol. I had studied quite a wide variety of modules, some relevant to what I ended up doing, but not really. My supervisor’s main area was random matrix theory and I hadn’t taken that class as an undergraduate.
I think I always knew I wanted to try doing a PhD but in my final year of my masters the two things I enjoyed the most were my research project and the teaching I got to do. I figured a PhD would be more of the same and I didn’t like the idea of getting a job in the “real world” quite yet.
How did you decide on a project?
I did a research internship in the summer of my second year of my undergraduate. Whilst I didn’t work with the person who would become my PhD supervisor, all the project students and supervisors would go out for food and present to each other, so I got to know her as a supervisor and see the project she was offering.
I spoke to lots of people in the area I was interested in working with – I had decided I wanted to stay at Bristol, which both narrowed down my options but meant that everyone I spoke to was usually only an introduction away.
I had done projects in my undergraduate and masters years with different supervisors, so I had worked out what style would suit me best.
Between understanding of supervision style and interest in the project, there was a clear preference!
How was your application process?
I spoke to different people about what projects they were offering. My conversation with my now supervisor was an email where I said “Could we chat about this project?” She arranged a meeting, I showed up and we discussed the project. She already knew people I had worked with (which went a long way) and so essentially asked if I was interested. I said “yes” and so I put her name down on the application.
How did you arrange funding?
For the maths department there was funding available, so it was a case of ticking a box on the form that says “I’m applying for a PhD, but can I have money as well please?” I got the PhD offer in January 2019 and the funding offer a month or two later.
What do you think made your application stand out?
I think it was a niche project so it hadn’t had much direct interest which helped a lot. Beyond that, I had good grades, lots of research experience (a research internship, a bachelors project and a masters project) and strong references from people I had worked with.
What advice do you have for people applying for a PhD?
Talk to supervisors before applying.
I had a coursemate who on paper was a better candidate than me but they didn’t talk to any supervisors before applying and didn’t get any offers.
I think talking to potential supervisors is a great way to work out what they’d be like to work with and also so that they know who you are before you apply.
My masters supervisor and my personal tutor were both really helpful at suggesting people I could work with based on my interests and in some cases were able to make introductions, but often I would just email people who had projects listed!
It’s a 4 year commitment so talking to a supervisor first to figure out what they’d be like to work with is important in my opinion.
The thing I neglected to do was suss out the group I was going to be joining. The group I was in had very few postdocs which meant, especially during covid, my support network beyond my supervisor was quite limited. It also meant that by the time I was a third year, I was the most senior non-lecturer in the group and would get asked lots of questions my the younger PhD students!
I’d recommend talking to people in the group you’ll be joining to get a vibe of what your support network/colleagues will look like for the next couple of years!
Life as a PhD Student
How was your PhD experience? Did it differ from your expectations?
My PhD started in September 2019 so within 6 months I was in Covid lockdown. That affected things a lot and I wasn’t able to travel as much as I wanted to. My project was initially interesting but I think I realised quite quickly it wasn’t my area of interest. I don’t really know what I expected but the pandemic wasn’t it!
What were the highlights of your PhD?
I was a teaching assistant for first year linear algebra students during my first year as a PhD. Most of this was in person but some was online due to the pandemic. I had two groups of 12 students who I saw once a fortnight each, so it was difficult to build a strong bond and remember names, but I cared a lot about teaching so I tried my best to!
Two years later I bumped into one of those tutees outside of the maths building. They were in their final year now, due to graduate soon and told me that they had considered dropping out in first year but that support from tutors like me (among others) kept them going. They went on to graduate and I believe went on to do a masters in fashion marketing after that. Knowing I had made an impact on someone’s life like that was a clear highlight for me.
I think, during the pandemic, teaching online for a small group who would show up to my 9am optional tutorial in part for the social aspect made me feel quite good too. One session I ran out of content to teach and told them they could leave early – they asked me if I could teach them something else because they had nothing better to do so I ended up telling them about my PhD thesis for a bit.
An honourable mention should go to watching my supervisor present some of our joint work at a conference in Bristol. At one point someone asked a technical question and she deferred to me. I answered confidently and got a nod of approval. After the talk I had a lot of big names in the field coming up to me and asking me questions which was quite surreal!
How did you deal with failures during your research?
Badly, in hindsight. I considered quitting a lot. I had quite a few friends who were doing/had done a PhD, so oftentimes they were sympathetic/understanding of my struggles. I enjoyed my work but found maths unbearable in my free time (contrary to when I was an undergrad), so making sure I had other interests/hobbies was important too.
If you look at academic proofreading, often if you’re writing a paper then there will only be comments in places where you need to change something. This means that when you’ve addressed all the comments, you’re done! But it also means you spend most of your PhD not feeling good enough. When you don’t believe in you, it’s important to have loved ones around you who do!
What do you wish you’d known when you started your PhD?
The point of doing a PhD is to get you good at research. Being good at research is when you feel comfortable having no idea what to do. This means that you will inevitably spend quite a lot of time being stuck without a clear sense of direction. Unfortunately, this is a feature, not a bug, of the PhD experience.
If you can stick it out, you will be permanently better adjusted at working independently on difficult problems, regardless of domain.
Was the PhD stressful? If so, how did you handle the stress?
Yes.
Talking to friends, as I said above, was super important. Have hobbies that have nothing to do with reading or academics (ideally a sport!). I basically lost the enthusiasm to read anything whilst I was writing my thesis because I was staring at words all day.
I found the writeup particularly stressful.
You need to talk to your supervisor and communicate things. If you’re still struggling, you might have a second/pastoral supervisor who could be a good independent person to talk to. I struggled quite a lot with my mental health during the last year in particular and I regularly talked to mental health professionals (counsellors etc.) throughout my PhD, some was PhD/imposter syndrome related, some not (shoutout the pandemic). It’s always ok to ask for help!
Do you have any advice or tips you’d like to share for current PhD students?
A PhD is a job with a 4 year contract. That means it’s ok to quit. A PhD is not for everyone and not finishing one isn’t a sign of failure.
If you quit halfway through, you still have 2 years of work experience doing research. A close friend who I met doing my PhD quit 3 years in and it was the best decision they made and they are so much happier now for it. I still remember the day they told me they had finally made that decision, they were practically glowing with relief!
PhD Completion and Beyond
How was your viva experience?
Really good! I had been told before that submitting the thesis is harder than doing the viva. This was correct however I did not believe it until after my viva, you are unlikely to either!
You only fail if your supervisor has really messed up, so if your supervisor let you submit, you’re probably going to pass. I got major corrections but I agreed with most of them and it wasn’t too bad to get them done.
I actually read the blog a week before my viva and felt better for it and recommend it to others too!
What have you been up to since finishing your PhD? Do you have a career path in mind?
I got really into data ethics during my PhD by attending and later helping run a data ethics discussion group. Through that I was fortunate enough to get an internship as a research associate in machine learning working with Jeff! Between those and my PhD, I was able to land a job as a data scientist at the university.
The role is quite generalist and research adjacent, so it was good to help me get a strong foundation in lots of data science related areas.
I’m now using that to transition into a data science postdoc so it’s taken me a little longer to get into data science research.
I have aspirations to be a lecturer in data science. If I can, I really want to stay in Bristol for as long as possible, but we’ll see how things go!
How was the transition from being a PhD student to your current role?
I tried to make the most of opportunities I had during my PhD but my options were more limited because of the pandemic, but I did end up joining a data ethics discussion group (https://dataethicsclub.com/) in my second year after an interesting chat with someone in the maths department.
The organisers asked if anyone wanted to help run things so I volunteered to help write the blog. That led to me helping run events, being co-author on a paper and now I run the discussion group after the two original organisers left university. Both are now close personal friends and helped me get my current job as a data scientist!
The other thing I did was I took advantage of free coding classes that my university offered. I had to learn to code a little for my PhD, but I ended up attending some actual Python classes and it really increased my capabilities in coding. After I had finished the classes I went back and rewrote all of my PhD code. Ironically enough, I now teach these same courses at the university (https://bristol-training.github.io/).
These two things, networking and a bit of luck meant I was able to do an internship as a research associate in machine learning, working with Jeff and his boss Raul! This was a really good experience for me to do some actual data science and meet people in the data science sphere at Bristol.
Working with them made me realise I still wanted to do research but to transition to data science. Raul [Jeff’s boss] was one of my other references for my current job.
Has your PhD helped in your current role?
For the first 6 months I worked off the basis that my PhD was maths, not data science and so I would just have to learn how to do a new field. This I think was the right attitude, as lots of things (e.g. software engineering and lots of aspects of just being at a job) were new things to me and I just had to learn how to do them.
However, there were a lot of things that transferred over really well and I became a lot happier about my time spent doing my PhD when I realised that. My communication skills, particularly of complex ideas, had been well honed by my supervisor and my teaching and that’s useful no matter what job you do.
I also found that my base knowledge of maths from my PhD meant I found learning about new topics and algorithms in data science and machine learning to be much easier.
Doing a PhD teaches you to learn really fast, so I was just super comfortable starting a new project and needing to learn a new skill set and going “sure I’ll figure this out” and going from there.
I know a few academics who have re-specialised after their PhD. I don’t think it’s the conventional path but I think there’s a general acknowledgement that if you’ve done a PhD, you can do research, so you just need to demonstrate you can learn the new field.
In hindsight, would you choose to do a PhD again?
Yes. I think it would be hard for the 2019 version of me to know what I’d end up doing now, especially since the field of data science and AI has changed so much since then that there’s no way I could’ve known how the field would evolve. Overall I’m happy with where I’ve ended up so I don’t regret how I’ve gotten here!
Thank you so much to Huw for sharing his PhD story. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together with Huw. As a reminder, you can find Huw on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Previous PhD Profiles are available here and you can subscribe for free access to my resource library here:
“ Being good at research is when you feel comfortable having no idea what to do.”
Thank you for letting me know this 🙂
Totally enjoyed this interview. Thanks for sharing. All the best to Huw!
Thanks Afiya, yes, Huw shared some really useful insights! All the best.