{"id":674,"date":"2019-06-17T13:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/?p=674"},"modified":"2020-01-23T17:44:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T17:44:39","slug":"lifting-the-lid-on-msc-neuroscience-an-interview-with-dr-eamonn-walsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/2019\/06\/17\/lifting-the-lid-on-msc-neuroscience-an-interview-with-dr-eamonn-walsh\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifting the Lid on MSc Neuroscience: An Interview with Dr. Eamonn Walsh"},"content":{"rendered":"

I sat down with Dr. Eamonn Walsh, a Senior Lecturer and the Programme Lead for MSc Neuroscience <\/a>at King\u2019s College London, to acquire a deeper understanding of what makes the course special. Eamonn has produced many high quality publications throughout his incredible career, such as \u2018Brain mechanisms for loss of awareness of thought and movement<\/a>\u2019 and \u2018Voluntary control of a phantom limb<\/a>\u2019. You can find Eamonn\u2019s other publications here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What was the deciding factor in choosing to lecture and lead at King’s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think my life kind of lead up to it, in terms of the training I\u2019d received. I did a PhD at UCL and went on to do post-doc work, and then I worked at Birkbeck college where I ran a course similar to this one, but on a smaller scale. So, I suppose my interests, what I enjoy doing, what I felt I was good at and my experience all lead to this position. The King\u2019s MSc Neuroscience course is 30 years old\u00a0<\/strong>this year, and we think it\u2019s the first Neuroscience MSc in the UK.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s amazing!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is amazing, and it\u2019s great to have the opportunity to be part of a team that helps keep the flame burning!<\/p>\n

What is your favourite aspect of being the course lead for the Neuroscience MSc at King’s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Definitely working with students<\/strong>, staff and so many different people. The aim of the course is to train students for the future, whatever future they might select; to be a part of that is definitely an enjoyable aspect. This could be at a group level but also working with students on projects! So, at the moment I\u2019m working with two students on projects, and it\u2019s very rewarding.<\/p>\n

When you took part as a student 2 years ago, alongside the full-time cohort, to understand what it’s like to be a student on the course<\/strong>, what were the most enjoyable and most difficult parts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most enjoyable part of the A Modules is certainly learning again. I naturally like learning, that\u2019s one of the things I like about this job, I\u2019m always learning. I liked the broad number of lecturers who are research-active<\/strong>, and I very much enjoyed meeting new people. The hard part? My background is psychology, and I found some of the lectures very difficult \u2013 I would say it\u2019s physically quite difficult to sit down for so long every day and receive the lectures! I think realising that is a great strength because now I\u2019m course leader and I know what it\u2019s like to be a student; I think that\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

Do you have any advice for prospective IoPPN students?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming to do an MSc in Neuroscience at King\u2019s, or anywhere, is quite a big step. You\u2019re dedicating one year of your life or more, a lot of time, perhaps a lot of money as well on different fees and accommodation, so I think do choose carefully<\/strong>. But I think it\u2019s also useful that there\u2019s usually kind of built-in guarantees: King\u2019s college is a top university\u00a0<\/strong>and the MSc in Neuroscience is quite proven over the 30 years. My advice would be to come in with an open mind<\/strong>, have no strong fixed ideas because on the course you\u2019ll receive a broad range of lectures, assessments and training<\/strong>. You\u2019ll have optional modules to choose from and do not worry too much about \u2018am I picking the right module?\u2019 because all of them are good, and no matter which one you choose, you\u2019ll learn a lot and hopefully have a very good experience.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s great advice!<\/strong><\/p>\n

What kind of careers do students with a Neuroscience MSc go on to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Typically, students remain in academia; they\u2019re trained and prepared for that on the course so they may go on to do PhDs and Post-docs\u00a0<\/strong>and eventually run their own labs<\/strong>, not only at King\u2019s but across the whole world! Many students go on to work in biomedical industries, scientific writing\u00a0<\/strong>and other areas. We think that no matter which area <\/strong>you choose, the MSc Neuroscience will prepare you for that. I think it\u2019s true to say that we don\u2019t know where many of our students go, due to the international nature of the course; this year we\u2019ve got 29 nationalities<\/strong>, and some of these students will return to their home countries on the far side of the world. We\u2019re not sure what they\u2019re doing but we hope that they\u2019re successful, and acting as ambassadors for King\u2019s as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What does the future look like for the course?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a very difficult question! So, if we look at the last 30 years, it\u2019s changed a lot. It started off with six students in 1989 and it\u2019s majorly transformed over the years. The students have changed too; the course has grown, it\u2019s become more international. The technology has changed over the years, so we\u2019ve got the invention of the iPad in 2010, and that changed everything! But, what remains the same is teaching\u00a0<\/strong>and human contact<\/strong>. Going forward, it\u2019s really hard to say; I think the technology\u00a0<\/strong>might progress again, and that may play a more important role. I think the course of the future will be more flexible\u00a0<\/strong>as well, so students will probably be able to tailor it more to their individual needs.<\/p>\n

And finally, a more light-hearted question, how many sugars do you take in your tea?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I find that a very serious question. So, the last time I had a cup of tea, there was no sugar in it and the time before that, there was also no sugar in it. But that\u2019s because there wasn\u2019t any sugar available. I don\u2019t plan on taking or adding sugar to my tea in the future, but I keep my options open as I think we should always be ready for change.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I sat down with Dr. Eamonn Walsh, a Senior Lecturer and the Programme Lead for MSc Neuroscience at King\u2019s College London, to acquire a deeper […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":524,"featured_media":675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[22,95,88,11,50,94,53,14],"class_list":["post-674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-postgraduates","tag-careers","tag-course","tag-future","tag-ioppn","tag-kcl","tag-msc-neuroscience","tag-neuroscience","tag-postgraduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/524"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions\/768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/ioppn-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}