Fellowship report: from Dokuz Eylül University to Liverpool University

I am Duygu Islek.  I am a medical doctor and a resident at Dokuz Eylul University Department of Public Health and getting specialty training.

I visited Liverpool University in September 2013 and February 2014. I worked over a stroke model for Tukey with Prof. Simon Capewell, Dr. Martin O’Flaherty and Dr. Maria Guzman Castillo. 

First of all, I felt privileged to have the opportunity to work over modelling with very experienced and precious supervisors in Liverpool which is one of the greatest universities around the world. Not only my supervisors but also the other people at the Department were very hospitable and I felt very happy and comfortable during my visit. We had productive discussions and I had the opportunity to learn  a lot about modelling. During our meetings  I felt free to ask my questions and Prof. Capewell, Dr. Flaherty and Dr. Guzman Castillo were very supportive to answer and share their deep knowledge and experience with me. I also had the opportunity to meet new people working at the Department and learnt about their academic work and experiences. 

Prof. Capewell, Dr. Flaherty and Dr.Guzman Castillo were very hospitable and kind. I also had great time with them during our social activities after work. 

All the fellowship programme  was a start for me to have a new perspective in my studies and I realised again that ‘the world is very big- at least bigger than I thought’ and this gave me more courage to explore in Public Health with brand new researches.

The visiting fellowship programme exists to enable new skills and knowledge to be acquired by researchers within the Mediterranean partner institutions, over a longer period than is possible through workshops. More information about how to apply can be found here