I am Brinda Subbarayal. I am currently doing my Ph.D in Inflammation and Immunity at Medical University of Vienna (MUV), Austria. Right from my school days, at the foothills of Western Ghats, I had a great passion for science, especially Biology which prompted me to pursue Biotechnology as my undergraduate degree. Since then, I have always dreamt of becoming a researcher but never got the opportunity to obtain the knowledge required. This in turn, drove me to choose my career in clinical research where I crafted a plan for converting my theoretical knowledge into fruitful research.
I grabbed the opportunity to do my final-year thesis project at the MUV, Austria. I went to Austria to do my project with strong support from the Head of the Department and great encouragement from my family. I continued to work on the project even after my graduation was well over just because of the confidence I attained through the project. In parallel, I also applied for Ph.D openings at MUV. In October 2008, I got admitted as a Pre-Doctoral fellow for an international Ph. D programme (Inflammation and Immunity) at MUV. Doing Ph. D is great fun and very rewarding, because I spend all my working time discovering things and pursuing ideas and getting paid for it.
In Europe, the average duration to complete a Ph. D (mostly completely-funded) is three to four years. In the first year of your Ph. D, you will be taking a full load of courses. So, you don't find much time to focus on your research.
The lectures were unquestionably challenging, particularly for someone like me with not much research background. However, this is also what made the class so memorable.
After that, you will have two more years to do research, which should culminate in a good publication, too. So, you must work hard — all day long, all week and part of most weekends. If research is your passion this should be easy, and if it is not, you are probably in the wrong field. It's always good to take some weekends off though for a decent holiday before you burn out completely. It is also good to have other interests, like photography, travelling, cooking, and sports, which always help me when I get frustrated or disappointed.
The Medical University of Vienna is the largest medical research institution in Austria and the biggest medical university in all German-speaking countries. It was founded in 1365 as a Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna. It started working as an autonomous and self-administered university since 2004.
MUV provides cutting-edge education in the fields of Neurobiology, Vascular Biology, Immunology and Inflammation Research.
There are many Nobel Prize winners such as Robert Barany (Medicine 1914) and Karl Landsteiner (Medicine 1930) who spent some part of their academic career at the University of Vienna. It is not compulsory to know German to survive in Vienna. Well, don't expect to learn Deutsch in Vienna! The dialect in Austria is very different.
The city is really beautiful, with an impressive public transport system. Culturally, it offers everything you can imagine and has the cutest cafes. However, it is quite an expensive city. According to the Global Peace Index 2010, Austria is fourth on the list of the safest and most peaceful countries and has a very high score on democracy and education.
MUV offers a great number of opportunities to develop a good career in Science. I therefore highly recommend MUV for students, who want to build up their career in science and are looking for a good quality of life.
