Introduction by Head of Department
Introduction by Head of Department
In many ways the decision to undertake an Honours year or a Master of Science is one of the most important you will make.
It is literally the first step in your independent scientific career when you choose research areas that you might like to call your own.
There are many things to consider - the research topic, your need and desire to undertake additional, advanced coursework, the laboratory and its resources, the potential supervisor and the departmental support of students.
This booklet is designed to provide you with sufficient information to whet your appetite in physiology in the Department at Honours and MSc levels. As a discipline, physiology has been reborn. The growing interface with molecular biology has given rise to physiological genomics, and you'll find ample evidence of this exciting new area in the pages of this booklet. If you visit the laboratories in the Department, you'll find everything from DNA synthesis and cell transfection, to sophisticated patch clamp, confocal and multiphoton microscopy, and human muscle & exercise experiments.
As a Department we are very proud of our students and we have developed a carefully organised course-work program to complement your developing laboratory and analytical skills. The Departmental environment provides support in a number of ways for our Honours and MSc students, but perhaps none is more important than the friendship and advice they receive from our graduate students.
Take your time, have a good look through this booklet, think carefully about your options, visit potential supervisors and ask the hard questions. Remember, it's your future. We hope that you'll make Physiology part of it.
Good luck!
Prof Mark Hargreaves
(Head of Department)