Class in Session and in the Field

Mark’s class is held in the Bennett Room near our dorms – it is in a round building that has a library (unfortunately closed for the summer) and a “common room” where the students will have most of their morning and afternoon teas. 

Class setting down for morning lecture

Class has morning tea in the common room

But, they don’t always stay in class – there are field trips to local laboratories.  Below are two of the working labs that they visited this week:  the students walked to the Sainsbury Laboratories and later in the week they took the bus to the new facility of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which has Nobel laureates as part of its research staff.

The Sainsbury Laboratory tour was conducted by Dr. Siobhan Braybook, a UCD PhD graduate working there as a Career Development Fellow and also as a Fellow (i.e., assistant professor) at Kings College, who began with a lecture and then took the students around to view the laboratories:

Modern labs and facilities

Working test gardens

 

The LMB tour was conducted by Dr. Lori Passmore, a Research Group Leader studying aspects of gene regulation, who also began with a lecture and then arranged for the students to be taken around this newly constructed and modern facility, which from the sky is shaped like a chromosome!

 

 

Model of the building - from above, it looks like a chromosome.

 

The Nobel Laureates of the LMB

There is a hidden floor under each main floor which houses all technology and electronic connections -
makes repairs and upgrades possible without disturbing science experiments or the scientists.

Nice view from the commissary.

 

After Friday's mid-term exam, the students were served a delicious lunch in the dining hall at Old Court: