Interview At The Cavendish
Posted On Tuesday, March 1, 1988 at at 12:52 AM by Alvin1988 was a year reserved for hard work ! It was the last year before my GEC Ph.D. scholarship ran out and time to find a job ! By a fluke of luck, I read an advert in The New Scientist Magazine and applied for a Research Assistantship at The Cavendish Laboratory - just trying my luck really. I was invited for an interview on the 1st March ! Even more amazing, they gave me the nod a week later provided I finished my Ph.D. work before joining them; of course, my supervisor gave in a few good words (thanks Brian !) helped a lot. So it was a final push to get results and write up the thesis. My Work Permit was processed successfully in August and I was ready to start a new life in Cambridge !
The photo below was taken in the Ph.D. Hopefuls' office (my desk to be exact) and of particular note are Bill and Andy (back row second and third from the right) whom I got along FAMOUSLY - especially grabbing coins off un-suspecting girls queuing up at the student union's pool table, exchanging jokes in smoke-filled dimly-lit disco bars as well as fighting to get the next round of ciders. Thanks guys for those great years !
A big thank-you must go to some of the fellow students and laboratory technicians as they helped and encouraged me throughout and showing me the delights of Pub life and the subtle difference between ale (beer for real men) and lager (beer for the rest of the world including me).Aside from my Ph.D. work, I worked hard on my squash and did a lot of sports and led Surrey to win the Surrey-Southampton-Sussex (SSS) Tournament again ! Here's the winning volleyball team ! These SSS Tournaments took place almost every year and Surrey had been the Champs (yeh!) for many years running as you could see below, we had the fullest and most all-rounded teams as well as a fun team to play in.
