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What was your favourite memory in UCC?
My best memory of UCC has to be the time of graduation- when my mother witnessed me getting the degree. It was my long-time ambition to bring my parents over to Ireland since they haven’t had much luck travelling in their lives. I was lucky to bring my mother to visit Ireland (it was her first flight too) during my graduation, and she saw me in the graduation suit, a proud moment for me and a moment that I will cherish in my life forever.
How did your time at UCC help you to get to where you are now?
This immense amount of exposure that an international institution like UCC can provide: There are vast opportunities that become evident to you, be that comes with the degree or the contacts you develop through the time of your degree. My PhD area was in spectroscopy, and UCC helped me sharpen my knowledge and learn how to use them in the right direction. In addition to the technical knowledge, one also knows how to communicate professionally by mingling with colleagues and reputed lecturers, helping to shape one’s career in an early stage. UCC has helped me a great deal with shaping an ideal skill set.
What is your advice to current UCC students? What person/people at UCC had the most positive influence on you?
Knowing what you don’t know is equally as important as the stuff you already know. Often one might get lost in focusing on their skills and exhibiting them, and in the pressure, they might overdo certain situations. If you already know what doesn’t suit you, it is much easier to focus on your skills that you can shine. Also, UCC brings about this tremendous opportunity of “working with a globe “. One cannot ask for a better environment if they are looking forward to enhancing their social skills, meeting new people, trying something that you haven’t tried before in your life. Don’t miss out on that chance by restricting yourself to boundaries.
Many people have been positive influences for my career during my time in UCC, be it lecturers or my PhD guide, but the most influential ones were my friends. My friends, who became more like a family, helped keep me sane during the pressure situations, especially during the last years of my PhD.
Were you involved in any Clubs or Societies?
I was in the founder group of UCC Indian society and was the vice auditor for the same in the academic year 2013-14.
What are you currently working on?
I work as a Senior postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis (CAPPA), Munster Technological University.
UCC Indian Alumni Community 