Thalassa is a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher within the University of Leicester’s INTREPID Forensics programme. Her current research focuses on the development of dried blood spot analysis for the detection and quantification of drugs of abuse in forensic toxicology. You can read her full biography over on our Staff & Researcher page and a full description of the project here.
Monthly blog posts from Thalassa can be found below. The blog posts cover daily work experiences, training sessions and external events. The purpose of these blogs is to inform anyone interested about her progress as well as any findings that may result from her research. In addition, it serves as a platform for young researchers interested in doing a PhD (under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, Research Fellowship Programme). Feel free to leave a comment or head over to our contact page to send her an email.
In the Netherlands they have a saying ‘Good news has to be shared’. Therefore only this quick update, just because I’m so happy my first manuscript has been accepted and been made available online today!
If you’re interested, you can check it out here🙂
Ok I’ll try to add bit of context as the article can be a technical if you’re not a scientist or if you’re working in a different area; [Read more…]
“What are dogs doing at the police? Or are you wondering how other police units work?
On the 21 November we’re visiting Leicestershire Police Headquarters to see the dogs unit, road policing unit, call management centre and hear more about the serious and organised crime unit, specials and volunteers team, witness and victim interviewing.”
The text above is from the Forensic Science Society advertisement to promote the first event of the new term; [Read more…]
When I woke up I skipped breakfast. Not because I was in a hurry for an appointment, as always, but this time for science!
Around 11am, I finished reading the participant information sheet and filled in a consent form. After having done some test breath tests and providing a few background breath samples, it was finally time for THE task:
Drinking half a pint of lager within 10 minutes. [Read more…]
Why? Would it be…? Could you?
The past two years (although some will say the past 28 years:P), I was the one asking the questions. A lot of questions (see for example one of my early blogs – 1, 2, 3).
Last Friday the tables were turned. [Read more…]
Kia Ora!
Haere mai to a new blog post.
I’ve just finished my second international conference (ANZFSS in Auckland, New Zealand) with a fabulous gala dinner. While being close to Middle-Earth (for LOTR fans; yes I’ve paid a visit to Hobbiton:P), the setting actually reminded me of a festive dinner in Hogwarts from Harry Potter. [Read more…]
I begin to comprehend the incredible conditions this fellowship can have. In the end good things might come from my secondment, but I will have to come back later for that as I’m still waiting for data. At the moment I’m enjoying -apart from having a gigantic jetlag- the opportunity I took to attend the annual TIAFT meeting being held in Brisbane, Australia, this year. [Read more…]
In general, my PhD studies so far can be summarized with a single image:
But let’s have a look at a random day at the beginning of August 2016, the end of my second year: [Read more…]
A little less than a year ago, I went to Les Diablerets in the Swiss mountains to attend and present at the ESC doctoral summer school. During the summer school and the months thereafter I’ve been asking Lisa and Andy if it would be possible to go again, because of the amazing (I should probably say interesting:P) week there. At the moment they finally gave green light, I got an opportunity offered for a more chemistry related summer school this year (biotechnology and medicine to be more correct actually). [Read more…]
I don’t bother packing and unpacking my suitcase anymore. Finding the cheapest flight can be added to the list of skills I’ve developed during my PhD studies and being confused by the variety of currencies in my wallet almost happens every day. [Read more…]
At the time of booking my ticket for my secondment, I didn’t know I would be flying on the day the Leicester football team became invincible in the Premier League. Leicester had suddenly become a less unknown place to the rest of Europe and was finally turning into an exciting place. The second thing was too bad for me, because I was missing out the multiple celebration events. From the first thing I could take advantage however, as more and more people started to hear about Leicester I had to explain less and less how to pronounce Leicester and its whereabouts.
At the moment, I’m 255 miles away from my home and university in Leicester. [Read more…]
Funded from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework and Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement No. 607930