Josephine Burgin Vice-Chancellor’s Prize 2019

Cranfield is a truly unique university and I never expected my time studying here to prove to be such a significant year in my life.

I came to Cranfield demotivated with my current field of work and just really wanting to move into a new direction. I previously studied biology and I found that there was no topic that suited me. I was bad at lab work, I didn’t like dissecting things and I could not for the life of me remember the amount of different Latin names and molecular pathways that was expected of me. So, I took a leap of faith and decided to learn a new skill, with no background knowledge in that skill and no idea if I would be any good at it. I decided to study Applied Bioinformatics here at Cranfield University as I really wanted to learn software. And to be honest, it was getting to the point where I was considering changing my career path entirely.

What I truly didn’t expect from Cranfield was to finally find my passion – my year here reminded me of everything I originally loved about biology and showed me how to apply that passion in an analytical and mathematical way that finally suited me. I learnt so much in such a small space of time. I really believe I learnt more in my one year at Cranfield than all three years of my undergraduate degree altogether.

Cranfield has provided me with the most fantastic tuition and some incredible opportunities as part of my course. I not only learnt to write my own software but I was also able to have the first piece of software I’d ever written actually published in one of the top Bioinformatics journals for the scientific community to use (Learn more about my tool). I achieved what I came to do and learnt so much more along the way.

I’ve made so many friends from all over the world and learnt so much about so many different cultures. Strangely, some of my fondest memories were of our entire course working in the library together, taking up the whole ground floor IT suite and helping each other to get our assignments in on time. It was so lovely having such a small and friendly group of people to work with and never feeling like you’ll get lost in the crowd.

For the first time in my life, I’m actually excited for where my future will lead me. I feel like not only have I found a field I am passionate in but I’ve been given a great platform in which I can grow my skills further.

Josephine Burgin

Vice-Chancellor’s Prize 2019

Bioinformatician Software Engineer

EBI – Cambridge – UK