Sara Schmidt

PhD in Chemistry, Masters in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry with Industrial Placement 2014 and 2019

Your Time at the University

I decided to study in Edinburgh mainly because I instantly fell for the vibrant atmosphere of the city when visiting it for the first time. It is quite clear that this atmosphere exists in large part because of the University and the rich environment, culture and fun it provides. More specifically I decided to study Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh because the course allowed me to focus in the areas I enjoyed the most - medicinal and biological chemistry -  and gave me the opportunity to do an Industrial Placement with GSK in Philadelphia as part of my degree.

After graduating from my Masters I decided to stay at the School of Chemistry to do a PhD within the group of Professor Mark Bradley, because of the fantastic research opportunities and facilities that the department has. In addition, during my PhD I was fortunate enough to collaborate with other research groups within the University itself, but also with research groups from other institutions across the globe.

Sara Schmidt

Outside of studying and doing my PhD at the University of Edinburgh, this is also where I have formed life lasting friendships, with people from all across the world. The incredibly diverse and international atmosphere of the University is what makes the University of Edinburgh such an amazing place to be!

Your Experiences Since Leaving the University

When finishing my PhD in October 2018 I moved to the south of the UK to start in my current position at GSK, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. At GSK I am on the Future Leader’s Programme (FLP), a three-year rotation programme where I get to spend 12 months each in three different areas of the R&D part of the business. In my first rotation I am based in the very early phase of the drug discovery pipeline – Target Identification – and I work with stem cell models for the purpose of finding novel drug targets. For my next rotation I will be gaining more experience in image-based screening and analysis and understand how assays are developed in a drug discovery setting.

The interdisciplinary nature of my PhD research project at the University of Edinburgh – the development of hydrogels for cell culture – was greatly beneficial to landing me the position on GSK’s FLP programme since this type of rotation programme requires individuals that are willing to launch themselves into unknown areas and that can work across multiple disciplines.

Alumni Wisdom

Make the absolute most of your time in Edinburgh. I mean this both with regards to your studies and utilising the fantastic resources, facilities and wealth of knowledge that the University and School of Chemistry has, but also remember to enjoy the city and atmosphere while you are there, because you will miss it if you ever have to leave – trust me, I know!