It has been a while! We hope you are all looking after yourselves and keeping happy and healthy. Today we have an instalment in the spin-off of The PhD Playlist series– The PI Playlist! The format is similar, with the spotlight being put on a group leader here at the Norwich Research Park to pick three songs: one song for their current research/job, one song for their life as a PhD student and that final much needed motivational song. This one is courtesy of our very own Andy Truman, with some excellent picks to keep us motivated in lockdown 2.0.
I’m a Group Leader in the Department of Molecular Microbiology, where my group aims to discover new bacterial natural products and understand how and why they are made. Growing up, music has always meant something to me since my teenage years – gigs, clubs, lots of Leeds festivals (nearest to home!), as well as plenty of longer trips to Glastonbury. Days of partying at festivals with old school friends was a highlight each year. This has dried up in recent years – perhaps the effect of kids and age… Working from home due to COVID restrictions has meant that I listen to a lot more music than would be possible at work. Away from work, I’m usually spending lots of times with my family (we have two young sons) or cycling around rural Norfolk. @AndyTruman4
The PhD Song – Tribulations by LCD Soundsystem
I thought I’d pick something that came out during the time I was doing my PhD, which involved characterising and engineering steps in the biosynthesis of teicoplanin, a natural product antibiotic. The song choice reflects the inevitable struggles that crop up with a PhD – the experiments that never work, the challenge of reproducing an exciting result, the pressure of competition with other research groups and getting to grips with the idependence provided by a PhD. I also came to a PhD that mainly involved biochemistry having done precious little biochemistry during my chemistry degree, so there was also a steep learning curve. “Get your payments from the nation, For your trials and tribulations” seems to accurately reflect a BBSRC-funded PhD…
I did thankfully have some success in the PhD, which I really enjoyed and obviously got me hooked on natural product biosynthesis. There was also some real sadness – my PhD supervisor, Joe Spencer, died in a car accident towards the end of my PhD. Joe was a lovely man who I owe a lot to.
The Current Job Song – Danny Nedelko by Idles
Until a few years ago, I think it was easy to be complacent about the benefits of diversity in science – it’s very normal to have an international lab, yet recent events in the UK have made me value this a lot more. My research group has benefitted massively from the expertise of researchers from around the world, especially post-docs and students in the group. I’ve therefore picked a great recent song that celebrates this diversity.
The Motivation Song – Be Strong by The 2 Bears
I was characteristically undecided by this, so it “motivated” me to put together a playlist of “motivational” tracks that reflects some of the music I listen to while working/exercising (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5KsMqjPBAvdBxDiNdaQMyR?si=RnB6qFIgTcGUYLDC-bmxaw). I finally picked a song that has a bit of everything – it’s a celebration of dance music, literally features a motivational title and lyrics, and is a bit of a banger.
Head over to Spotify to step into the archives of the PhD playlist and see what other PI’s and PhD students are listening to on the Norwich Research Park.
The PhD playlist is the brainchild of Millie Stanton (follow her on twitter @milliestanton for some sweet science and music masterpieces) and has been continued by Melissa Davie (follow me @melissajd_ for very irregular retweets of cute dogs and natural products science).
Drop me an email if you want to be featured! melissa.davie@jic.ac.uk