The full name of PhD is doctor of philosophy, or more descriptively “permanent head damage”. Generally, you conduct your own research over three to four years and contribute novel knowledge to the field. At the end of journey, you defend your thesis and get rewarded as “Dr”. As a Bachelor student, you take papers, write reports, assignments and exams, then you pass the course.

Once a month I enjoy giving up some time to do volunteer work in the Waitakere Ranges for Ark in the Park. The Ark is a large area of the Waitakere Ranges that is under a pest protection plan that involves the use of traps, poison bait, monitoring, reintroduction of native birds and much, much more.

As a student with my family and friends spread out all across Auckland, I am quite reliant on my car. I drive a (relatively) old car, as I’m sure many of you other students do, and with age tends to come a variety of strange features in the form of odd noises and weird features. Whenever I experience one of these, I usually turn the music up and/or assure my fellow passengers that everything is completely fine, all the while pushing back the ‘I hope I don’t die in this car’ thoughts to the back of my head.

My trip to Washington DC started with me waking up in disbelief one morning noticing that my flight time was within 10 hours. The GapSummit conference was held in between the end of lectures and exam period. Therefore, the thought of being halfway around the world before having exams was very unreal and stressful. However, it turns out the lesson I got out of this trip was more valuable and memorable than the course content crammed just for my exams.

It’s that time of year again. You’ve got your semester one results back, have had time to cry in your room for a few days, and then a little more time to realise the error of your ways and promise yourself that this semester will be different. 

For most of us, university is a long, strenuous grind in which one toils to obtain a piece of paper with their name on it. The freedom one gains compared to high school feels liberating, yet it is marred by the daunting reality that you are now responsible for your own learning with no one to push you.

This is the most common phrase that you always hear but never fulfill in real life. According to my experience, studying harder and longer doesn’t always guarantee you to get A+ in all assignments and exams. Studying hard for long periods is very exhausting and 100% of the knowledge would not last forever in your brain. I used to fail many subjects back in high school but when I started to follow my intuition to study smarter, instead of harder, my entire life was changed dramatically.

While diamonds may be made under pressure- cue Kermit Procrastination memes- procrastination and the Bermuda Triangle of productivity isn’t a recommended method of tackling the upcoming exam period. However, neither is studying till you drop! Believe me, after 5 years surviving exams I’m now somewhat of an expert.

Let’s face it. Our lives are infested with memes. One would say it’s a new cultural phenomenon that has revolutionised the way we communicate. Facebook feeds festering with relatable captions accompanied by an obscure picture where the comments section merely functions as means to tag your mates and say “omg us” are all the craze these days. But memes are not new. They’re not revolutionary. They’re evolutionary. I recently attended a fascinating psychology lecture discussing the evolution of culture and how memes, as they accumulate changes over a period of time, adapt features to fit into their respective niches and compete to be the most propagated, can be explained easily with the analogy of being a rapidly evolving cultural parasite.

Sometimes life presents you with hidden opportunities. How was I to know while idly perusing the magazine rack at Christchurch airport that I would find something that has astounded most of my friends, has had me and my flatmates screaming in incredulity?

The Chiasma Connect Mentorship Programme Launch occurred on the evening of May the 4th, unfortunately only a coincidence that it aligned with Star Wars Day. It is a 20 week programme which pairs students with industry professionals from their field of interest. As the first opportunity for the students to meet with their mentors, it was important to give a good first impression. We could say it was much like a first date, but perhaps without any of the awkwardness since everyone seemed to get along with each other nicely; plenty of laughs here and there.

For the rest of the yet-to-graduate-and-dress-up-like-Harry-Potter students out there, you can achieve everything that the bright hooded death eaters have, that and more. And I don’t mean this in a cheesy ‘grandma believes in you’ kind of way.

What we achieve in our life is not only the result of our hard work and effort, but is also strongly supported by the motivation, guidance and support of our friends and family. But what would happen if we also got encouraged, moulded and supported by someone from our industry, someone that is working in the field that we want to approach and has the experience and connections that we need to get started? The results may surprise you.

There is a certain sadness residing in all of us that never disappears; the sorrow of unfulfillment.  Our hearts constantly remind us of the dreams we stopped chasing – the hopes we once had – yet we do not pursue them because we know suffering and difficulty awaits. But why are most of us content with mediocrity? We live in a society of excessive comfort where very few have the drive to deliver real changes. Through many agonising ventures, I have  spent the last year exploring common problems in New Zealand and other First World Countries and will share some of my thoughts.

For those of you who haven’t heard about the tale of Harambe yet, on the afternoon of May 28th  this year at the Cincinnati Zoo in the state of Ohio, a 17 year old male gorilla named Harambe was shot to death after an unsupervised boy fell into his enclosure.

When you are reading this, just take a moment and look around you. What percentage of people are busy socialising? How many of them are reading a book/studying? How many of them are laughing with friends? How many of them are playing Pokémon Go, Candy Crush or scrolling through their newsfeed on Facebook.

“It is not a radical concept that our government should represent working families and our young people rather than just a handful of billionaires”

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Four years and $30,000 later, we end up with a single parchment that states our name and that of our degree

As an international student, I travel back to Taiwan from time to time whenever I am free from university, which is usually twice a year.  I am cognisant of the fact that the temperature has been increasing every year, but staying indoors with the air conditioning on was just a convenient method to remain coolly ignorant of the problem.

Having been studying for four and a half years now (almost done!), the word “experience” has been hammered into my head many times until I lost count and grew tired of hearing it. The importance of it was not understood until around the middle of my undergraduate degree, which I always think was considered late. Once I realized grades do not matter without experience, frantic searches for work and proof of credibility that I can put in my CV were what transpired.

With exams rapidly approaching and the semester no doubt heating up for everyone out there, the pressure is building. It is at this point where for most people, the stress starts to set in. Those two essays and a lab report due in Week 11 seem to mock you from your wall planner, the questions…

Selfie with Sir Isaac Newton’s famous apple tree, sleeping at Trinity Hall where Stephen Hawking once bunked, and Hogwarts-style dinner at Trinity College Dining Halls are a few of many highlights I had while I attended the 2016 Gap Summit hosted at the University of Cambridge in the UK. This post is about a few…

So I’ve just had a quick read through all the previously written blogs down the pages and archives of journals written by inspirational students striving for better and greater things for their careers and lives. What I read was quite compelling; eons of inspiring stories, wisdom, and achievements accumulated throughout the years for the occasional…

It’s been over ten years since New Zealand’s (NZ) national student organization was founded, a big milestone and a time for reflection. Chiasma strives to foster links between science students, academia and industry.

Design can be a loaded word with many connotations. But if you think about how something works in its context, the last 5% of improvement can make all the difference in the final result.

I’m currently in Stockholm, Sweden completing my Master’s Thesis in BioScience Enterprise. As an exchange student you are immersed in a new country and learn a lot of things first hand.
Here are some things I’ve learned about Sweden during my time here so far.

So often, young adults like myself become fixated on achieving their ultimate life goals. So much so that a small setback can easily derail their progress and send them into a downward spiral of self-doubt.

Please Note: The views expressed are based on the author’s personal experience and thoughts. Advice should be taken with caution (or not at all) as it’s subjective to individual circumstances.

I am not a motivational speaker, a hippy or affiliated with any particular religion. I am just your average Joe student who stresses over exams, stays up late to finish assignments and worries about my vocational future. The next part may sound a bit ‘weird’ to some, but over the last few years I have begun to truly realise the marvel of life (without even taking any philosophy papers!).

Two weeks ago Chiasma hosted the much anticipated Synapse event at the University of Auckland Business School. Its hard to believe that it is over again for this year! 

It’s tough being an average student. I would know because I am one. Always striving for that A grade boundary, only to just scrape into a B.

Why is it that a person would want to live forever? The concept is thought provoking even for the most simple mind. Reasons may vary between individuals from different walks of life, but what is it about immortality that thrills us and scientists alike?

What separates all the “Greats” of the world from everyone else?  The golden circle theory explains there is one thing that Apple, Martin Luther King and so many other leaders of various fields do exclusively. If you also practice this manner in your own life it will assist in you being more satisfied and successful in this rapidly changing world.

Borne out of isolation, Kiwis were improvising and adapting limited resources to produce innovative solutions. This ‘make do, can do’ attitude embodies the tradition of kiwi ingenuity where New Zealanders refuse to be constrained by limited experience and resources, and believe in their ability to solve problems in ways that challenge the status quo – the ‘’Number 8 wire’’ mindset.

Creativity is something that is usually thought of as an abstract concept. Some people believe that it is a talent that only certain people have. I think that creativity is much more than that and we should use it to our advantage in our daily life.

GapSummit 2014 brought together current biotechnology leaders with 100 future leaders from across the globe to discuss, debate and challenge the status quo in biotechnology.

Somebody once said that everything looks cooler in slow motion. So I put that to the test.

We all know that Chiasma has some really good events where you can network with students and industry members alike, but what some of you may not know is that Chiasma puts on some really good workshops too.

I thought I’d make this blog post a little more interesting with something that may polarise many readers. I ask Greenpeace – Good, bad or ugly?

The tenth annual Chiasma Launch was a rousing event – Joerg Kistler spoke of the importance of collaboration between the industry and academia in order to propel New Zealand’s growth as an intellectual powerhouse. We have the talent, but the link – the ‘chiasma’ so to speak, needs to be strengthened.

At the end of last year I was approaching the mid way point of my degree. Many of my friends were finishing university and moving out in to the “real” world and getting “real” jobs, while I was left contemplating another two years of assignments, labs and exams.

The war between vaxxers and anti-vaxxers is rife and it astonishes me, that despite all the independent, peer-reviewed research that has been published over the years, there continues to be a fear of vaccination, a trend that seems to be increasing.