The first three months of my PhD have been an interesting endeavour. I was hindered by a lack of a workspace until almost two months in – which was demotivating. Either I would have to work at home, or cart around everything I need for the day. I shall not complain about the air conditioning in the office! The lab I’m above (the Starling lab) is where Ernest Starling discovered the first hormone (secretin).
Currently I’m trying to build an enzyme kinetic model of the Arf/PIP5K/PLD signalling network. This is progressing much better since Christmas! I will try to get around to writing up more about this at a later date.
I’ve been organising the Secret Santa for my CoMPLEX year group this year. I thought it was important that no one involved knew the “master list” of who’s Santa was who’s Santee. So I wrote this R script (using the sendmailR and plyr packages) to automatically shuffle names and send emails.
library(sendmailR)
library(plyr)
send.santee <- function(x) {
sendmail(msgFrom, x$Email, msgSubject,
sprintf(msgBody, x$Name, x$Santee),
control=list(smtpServer="smtp.example.com"))
}
# settings
msgFrom <- "me@example.com"
msgSubject <- "Secret Santa"
msgBody <- "Hi %s, your Secret Santa Santee is %s."
# read in list of names/emails
db <- read.csv("secretsanta.csv")
# shuffle names, making sure no one get themself
db$Santee <- db$Name
while(any(db$Santee == db$Name)) db$Santee <- sample(db$Name)
# send the emails
adply(db, 1, send.santee)
This has been primarily set up to satisfy the generic skills component of the MRes ‘Modelling Biological Complexity’, for which I am currently studying.
However I fully intend to expand my use of this website into a personal blog, and online CV. I plan on using this as a place to start writing about my thoughts on science – particularly my area of interdisciplinary research – and my experiences as a postgraduate student.
The links at the top of the page talk more about my Education and Interests. Also I am required to link to my completed MRes Projects as PDFs.