Study Earth Sciences at Graduate Oxford

I'm Sapia, a third year PhD student here at the Department of Earth Sciences in Oxford. Throughout my time here I have really felt like I've built a home in Oxford and that has been unexpected. How much I've enjoyed my time here and how the stereotypes have broken down. What's really nice about Earth Sciences as well is that we cover such a wide range of expertise. We have geochemical experts but also some of the world leading volcanologists which is just an incredible privilege to be guided and mentored by these people. The caliber of the faculty, professors and research that is going on here really extends far across the globe. You really are able to tap into all of those resources and it creates a really enriching PhD and that's been extremely satisfying and I think has made me a better scientist. If you found a project and a supervisor that really fits you perfectly, that you think you're going to really love, try and not get bogged down in the stereotypes. I was coming from an environment where going to Oxford was just for posh rich people to witness such a different reality to what I believed growing up that Oxford was. My graduate time here has really opened my eyes to all the possibilities. It's really allowed me to think of what I want to achieve later on in life and where I want to go and who I want to surround myself with and that's really enriched my experience here meeting people from all over the world. My name is Brandon Fish. I'm in the Department of Earth Sciences doing a DPhil. Among the population of other grad students I'm a little bit older, I'm 32 years old and moving here out of Florida, first time I walked in looking up I was like oh my goodness this is advanced equipment, all the resources I couldn't have asked for better right. The people that I'm meeting, my advisors, professors, are also just down to earth from all backgrounds. What I've felt is that there's been a lot of encouragement to speak with and collaborate with a lot of the technical staff, the people that run certain labs, that run certain instruments, building skills that are transferable outside of learning about my meteorite rocks. I now know how to operate scanning electron microscopes which is applicable both in research and universities and in industry. Being able to feel like I have grown in a way where I've been encouraged to have that freedom of exploring scientifically these problems that I find interesting, I really attribute that to the guidance of my advisors and helping me lay down the foundation of forming this project and very much encouraging me to take ownership. I am excited about having to travel to other parts of Europe that I've never seen before to work on these big fancy instruments and get this data that's just like blowing my mind. I didn't know we could even do this. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but that's planetary geology. It's what I've wanted to do my entire life.