Can you study for an academically challenging science degree and still train to compete as an international sportsman? Of course you can, according to Chris Lawrence, a third year undergraduate student of Materials Science at Imperial and member of the Great Britain under 20s fencing team.
The busier you are the more you get done
“I really believe that the busier you are the more you get done. I study during the day and tend to train four nights a week, usually not getting home until 11pm. But studying a tough subject like materials and playing a mentally challenging sport like fencing just means that I sleep really well!”
“When it came to choosing a university sport was important to me. It came down to a choice between Imperial College London and Loughborough University. Loughborough had all the sports facilities and financially speaking life would have been easy there with a lot of scholarships on offer. But Imperial won out because of the academic quality of the College, I still got scholarships for my sport, and you have everything on your doorstep in London. Sure, London is more expensive but it is affordable. You just have to be careful what you spend.”
Growing up just north of London in Bedford, Chris’s parents inspired his path into Materials Science. “My dad is a self-employed and does a lot of manual labour and my mum has a degree in microbiology. So between them I was inspired to look for a degree subject that would involve elements of engineering and the sciences. I didn’t know that I wanted to study materials until I started to look at universities. Most people have never heard of it as a degree and give you a confused look when you tell them what you study, but I loved the idea of it because it is so broad and leaves so many doors open for you.
Detailed science and broad knowledge
“I thought about studying a whole range of subjects: mechanical engineering, natural sciences, environmental engineering. I wanted something that would allow me to carry on with the range of sciences that I enjoyed at A-Level but where I could really see the link between theory and reality. As it is, I want to become an intellectual property lawyer and materials science gives me the breadth of understanding the sciences that is needed for that kind of law.”
But the subject is not without its challenges.
“Materials is harder than people think it is. It is at one and the same time detailed and broad. One minute you can be in a lecture on pure maths, the next hour you’ll be learning about cells and dissolvable stitches or implant technologies, then you’ll be learning how touch screens work or sitting in a business module learning about accounting. It’s the best thing about this course but it also makes it really challenging.”
So, with a tough degree programme and a gruelling training regime to help ensure he’s a candidate for the Olympics in 2016, surely there’s no time to do anything else?
Great mates and a coach
“I have some really great mates here. I think on some courses people don’t necessarily make good friends with their course mates. But in Materials we do, especially because we regularly have to work in groups of five people for labs. I make a point of not training on Friday nights or Saturday mornings, so I can still have a good social life too. And Imperial also have their own dedicated lifestyle coach for those of us who do a lot of sport, so we have a lot of support too: he’s much like having an older brother and is there whenever I need someone to chat to.”
Chris Lawrence
