Prospects Postgrad 1

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Postgrad 71 Silent witness JAN BIKKER studied accounting in Amsterdam before taking up a PhD in IDENTIFICATION PROCESS My research is Molecular and Genetic Medicine at the University of Sheffield. He has participated in several high profile forensic cases during his research, including the Thailand Tsunami identification effort. As part of my undergraduate course, I completed three internships at a forensic accounting firm, specialising in money laundering and fraud investigations. During the internships I did a lot of research in anti-terrorism strategies and terrorist financing and as such came in contact with various forensic subjects conferences and short courses at various universities around the world. This triggered my interest in pursuing further studies since I could research a subject I was really interested in, gain technical skills and professional expertise and create new career opportunities. I chose the University of Sheffield because it is an international leader in research in many subject areas, and Sheffield offered research subjects I was interested in. I applied for a PhD at the Department of Forensic Pathology located at Sheffield’s Medico-Legal Centre, which is considered a centre of excellence in the UK for unexpected and sudden death investigations. SELF-FUNDED I’m self-funded and I chose focused on the various aspects of identification of deceased victims in disasters and human remains recovered from mass graves, researching methods to make this process more accurate. More specifically, my PhD project involves ‘in-silico’ modelling of genotyping and dental errors in data relevant to the identification of unidentified victims and the impact of those errors on the potential to identify human remains in large-scale databases. A postgraduate degree offers more opportunities in your career. During my PhD, I have participated in several forensic cases; I was employed in the Thai Tsunami Identification Effort in 2004. More recently, I was sent to Peru to recover the remains of ten victims who perished in a helicopter crash. I’m planning to pursue an academic career or Post-doc after my PhD. My first priority is to publish some of my research in order to give my academic career a boost; there are not many jobs or Post-docs around in my subject and the market is generally highly competitive if a position is available. Other possibilities include working for governmental or private forensic labs and institutions. to do so as money from an inheritance was available to study and being selffunded generally offers a higher degree of freedom in choosing a research project in contrast to a funded ‘predefined’ PhD project. To generate some extra pennies, I have been working in barman for about two years now. I usually work between three or four nights a week. I’m also working as a student ambassador for the University which involves helping out on open days, summer schools and working with school children to help them to learn about university life. On top of that, I have been a community assistant – basically a ‘mentor’ for students living in the halls of residences. This means little free time, long days and not much sleep - it certainly puts your biological clock to the test. It definitely helps to improve managing your workload and time-management skills, though. and research being carried out, mainly at Sheffield’s Students’ Union as a

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Prospects Postgrad Autumn 2008 Contents: What’s Inside For Love and Money Cash for Qualifications A Tale of Two Students Meet the Postgrad People All Aboard The Postgraduate Environment Maths Market The Postgrad Programme Teacher Training Arts and Humanities Science and Engineering Business and Management Social Sciences

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