The End of a Chapter … and the Start of Another … the PhD

The End of a Chapter … and the Start of Another … the PhD

I think that completing a PhD is one of the most amazing things that you can do in your life. I have never regretted doing it for one second, and think it is still one of the best things I have done in my career.

So, over the past few months, we have seen a good deal of our investment in Cybersecurity producing outputs, with lots of amazing research papers. And is some of the sources of this great work … our three brand new PhD graduates … Peter McLaren, Sean McKeown (both in middle of photo) and Elochukwu (Elo) Ukwandu (on the right-hand side).

A proud supervisor involved with all three — Dr Gordon Russell — is on the left of the photo. Personally, I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in all three of their PhD’s, and it has been so interesting to have an input into their work. I have seen them grow to become experts in the field, and I have learnt a good deal along the way. I also add another recent PhD graduation of Greg Spyra — who is in a rather hot Switzerland just now (but will be back in the cooler surroundings of Edinburgh for our forthcoming PhD graduation).

An investment in a PhD studentship is a long-term investment. There is no way of knowing that will arrive at the end of it, but it can lead to amazing things.

Our previous PhD work has led to amazing spin-outs (Zonefox, Symphonic and Cyan Forensics), and hopefully a new spin-out is evolving from our new work. But, at the core, is the personal achievement … the hard work, the search for direction, the set-backs, the downs of papers being rejected, the crawling over negative reviews on papers, the personal sacrifice of time, and the new directions that failed.

But it is also about the ups of papers being accepted, of people liking your work, of producing something that you are proud of, of becoming a master of your subject, of discovering the love of writing, of finding something that no-one else has found before … and the unbelievable pride that your family has in you as you walk across that graduation stage.

I have never stopped learning, and every day I learn something new. I learn from others and I share knowledge. The health of a nation equates to the health of its education system. It is the most prized things that we have as a society, and allows people to take control of their own lives. An investment in education will always pay back itself many times more. My great pride is that three of the four recent graduations have had cryptography as their foundation — and which is also my great passions.

So, go on, do that thing you always wanted to do, and don’t sit back and say “If only I had done …”. Go register for the postgraduate course that you have always wanted to do. Edinburgh is a fantastic city. Built on rock and education, and we would love you to come and be part of our university.

If you are doing a PhD, here’s a few of my tips for the thesis:

And a few pictures of Sean, Peter and Elo: