This time Scientific Bangladesh has interviewed Md Mahbub Hasan. He is pursuing his PhD at King’s College London. Here are his insights and experiences, which might be helpful for present and future PhD students.
1.Scientific Bangladesh: Please briefly introduce yourself, your PhD topic and, your University to our readers.
Md Mahbub Hasan: Hi, I am Mahbub Hasan doing my PhD in Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences at King’s College London. My studies are funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom . For life, I am a Commonwealth Scholar! In Bangladesh, I am affiliated with the University of Chittagong. My PhD is on drug discovery where I need to synthesize novel compounds to be used as antibody-drug conjugates against cancer and resistant bacteria as well.
2.Scientific Bangladesh: What has made you have gone for PhD? In other words, why are you pursuing PhD?
Md Mahbub Hasan: As a part of my academic career, I am pursuing my PhD. However, before joining academia I worked in a pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh which led to increasing my fascination with drug discovery. Moreover, doing a PhD is the opportunity to learn many things with a comprehensive program.
3.Scientific Bangladesh: How did you choose your i) PhD topic and ii) Institute?
Md Mahbub Hasan: This is a tricky question for people like me who depend on different scholarship funders for supporting their studies. I was basically looking for a PhD in Australia and the UK. So, my initial interest was diverse, from drug discovery to microbiology. Once I have got accepted from the University of Western Australia and King’s College London, I choose King’s due to its reputation in pharmaceutical sciences for centuries. King’s is one of the finest institutes in the world in pharmacy education and research.
4.Scientific Bangladesh: What is the minimum qualification in your university to get admission as PhD student, Bachelor or Master degree?
Md Mahbub Hasan: For my program, you need a master’s and an overall IELTS score of 6.5 (no band below 6).
5.Scientific Bangladesh: If anyone wants to do a PhD in your University/country, what steps should one follow?
Md Mahbub Hasan: To conduct a higher study in the UK, find a funding source first if you don’t have enough personal financial backup. Commonwealth Scholarship Commission is one of the large funding bodies for Bangladeshi students. Chevening Scholarships are also supporting but for masters’ students only. For PhD, recently Bangladesh government started two schemes namely Bangabandhu Science and Technology Fellowship (for all Bangladeshi citizens), Prime Minister Fellowship (there is a quota for all Bangladeshi people) and there is a special scheme for Dhaka University faculties named Bangabandhu overseer scholarship.
6.Scientific Bangladesh: What mistakes should one avoid when contacting with University or Professor for PhD studentship?
Md Mahbub Hasan: I don’t know about common mistakes but after trying for years to get a scholarship I can understand a student should write to the professor with a purpose. What I meant is after reading your email the professor can easily understand your background on the field (for PhD) and why you are choosing the professor (which available project you are targeting). How easily you can describe your purpose, you will get a reply sooner.
7.Scientific Bangladesh: How will you getaa PhD, by submitting a thesis or publishing a certainumbernumbero of publications (journal articles)?
Md Mahbub Hasan: To be frank, there is no straightforward requirement for publishing while completing a PhD. But you have to be in touch with your thesis progression committee and convince them that you have done enough and are ready for writing the thesis (which is about 100 thousand words long). If you publish one or two from your data from a particular part or chapter that would help a lot to push your degree further toward the final thesis defense. Another thing is that the final thesis will be evaluated by an independent committee so the thesis progression committee usually allows moving forward after achieving a significant progression.
8.Scientific Bangladesh: Did you deliberately choose your Supervisor? What were your criteria for choosing PhD supervisor?
Md Mahbub Hasan: If you are looking for a sponsored PhD, I think in that case you need to choose a few options rather than deliberately one.
9.Scientific Bangladesh: What is your key to maintaining a good relationship with your supervisor?
Md Mahbub Hasan: I follow the mantra that I learned from my Bangladesh supervisor, “Honesty and sincerity”. Once you are honest and sincere, you will find everyone is trusting you around yourself. Ultimately, everyone loves an honest and sincere person. So, be sincere and honest; rest scenarios will be the best.
10.Scientific Bangladesh: What principle do you follow to maintain a good relationship with your labmates?
Md Mahbub Hasan: In my case,
I treat every action in the research group as a “benefit for the group”, not “personal”. Basically, what we are doing in a research group it’s for the interest of the group. Once you start practicing this, your labmates will find you a good team member rather than a superhero, and it works for maintaining a good relation and understanding with labmates.
11.Scientific Bangladesh: Doing PhD is a stressful job? How do you manage or release stress?
Md Mahbub Hasan: As I am doing my PhD here alone and left my wife and kids and family behind, it’s somehow stressful. To make life stress-free, I am engaged with a few social works like I teach British-Bangladeshi kids Bangla one hour per week. However, you feel peer pressure in your PhD and that is very critical to overcoming. In my case, I was feeling imposter at the beginning as I switched to Medicinal Chemistry from Biology. But I overcame it by changing the table from 9 to 6! Let me explain, I was thinking at the beginning that I am here from Bangladesh with six years of job experience in industry and academia and also awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship and so on. All this self-satisfaction puts pressure on my brain and compares me to my peers from Oxford and Cambridge. This was a “9” thing! But actually, I am here as a student to learn and all resources available here at King’s are for my improvement so nothing to lose, then I started from the other side, where ‘9“looks like ”6”.
12.Scientific Bangladesh: How many days in a week do you go to the lab? Why?
Md Mahbub Hasan: As per the UK government decision, all the researchers with a time contract are regarded as essential workers. So I need to go to the lab 5 days a week but need to maintain social distancing and following shifts (morning or afternoon) to be aligned with COVID-19 guidelines.
13.Scientific Bangladesh: PhD is considered as training for a career in Research. What 1. technical and 2. Soft skills you are focusing on developing or developed by this time?
Md Mahbub Hasan: I do agree; it is intensive training in a particular field.I am now comfortable working in a chemistry lab and can do different types of reactions following protocol. For soft skills, I learned a lot regarding the chemistry of drugs, presentation of ideas, maintaining psychological balance, writing manuscripts and public engagements etc.
14.Scientific Bangladesh: What is your plan? Want to go back to Bangladesh or not?
Md Mahbub Hasan: I deliberately want to return to Bangladesh and serve the University of Chittagong.
15.Scientific Bangladesh: What are your suggestions for prospective PhD students?
Md Mahbub Hasan: If you are looking for a PhD position with fund/scholarship, sometimes it takes time to manage the funding. So, never give up.
Scientific Bangladesh: Thank you for your time and sharing experiences.