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Academic Year++

Profile picture for user Valentin Aslanyan
Valentin Aslanyan
York Plasma Institute
University of York, United Kingdom
Submitted by Valentin Aslanyan on 28 September 2015

Another academic year is about to begin; as we greet some eager new PhD students, it's time to reflect on the past and look to the future. Last year I went to Colorado again, getting some vital data for my own PhD thesis, as well as continuing work on the electronics systems of their capillary discharge laser. A useful endeavour, it turns out, as the University of York has just agreed to buy one and I've accepted a 6 month post-doctoral position to commission it. This means that I will have to observe the now-emerging tradition of going there again at the start of next year to get everything ready for us to install it. All the while, I have to finish my thesis in time for next April -  no sweat, then!

It's been a great year for the York Plasma Institute, too. For the last few months, many of us have moved out to allow a whole new wing to be built. It has been quite cosy living in a pre-fab chemistry building. I've been sharing a room with mostly other third and fourth year students, so the attitude here has been mostly one of a grim determination to finish the last bit of research and get the next thesis chapter written up. I'm not going to tell you how many pages of mine I have written so far, but it's about halfway done. In the meantime myself and a desk-mate have been growing some chilli plants on our windowsill, as a good excuse to occasionally procrastinate.

These plants have grown up at the same time as the extension to our institute - and almost as quickly!

Overall, I'm starting my final PhD year feeling a little older and a lot wiser (perhaps justifiably so). I've felt wise enough to tutor a couple of university applicants in the last few months. Doing some public outreach about science – we have just had YorNight, an open event to celebrate research at York – I feel a lot more like a scientist. I can only hope for a year as successful as the last one!