Meet Dr Mike Wilson

What course do you teach on and what is your role?

I teach on the Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care (APMIC) stream of the MRes in Biomedical Research.

How has your career led you to teaching?

"I've been involved in teaching ever since I started as a postdoc. Initially giving one-off lectures, then got involved more seriously in teaching undergraduate MBBS students on one of the BSc pathways they undertake at Imperial.  From there I became Director of that pathway (Anaesthesia and Critical Care) and have recently been appointed Head of Assessment for MBBS Phase 2 (BSc year).

At the same time, I have been supervising many MRes students to undertake research projects in my lab.  I am now one of the joint leads for the APMIC stream of the MRes course involved in teaching, assessment and everything else."
 

What aspect of the course do you enjoy teaching the most?

While I greatly enjoy the teaching sessions I carry out, the best part of the MRes for me is supervising students carrying out projects.  This really allows you to build a relationship with students and see them develop their skills through the process.  It's great to see a student who may have never picked up a pipette before starting, being able to design and run their own experiments by the end.
 

What do you hope your students will go on to achieve on completion of this course?

I hope that students will come out of the course with the skills to become professional scientists of the future.  Not just an ability to work in a lab, but everything else that scientists need to do - analyse data, critique articles, communicate effectively, and so on.  We want to (and believe we do) produce graduates who are very well prepared for further study or carrying out their own research projects.

What is your favourite part about teaching at Imperial College London?

The best part about teaching at Imperial is the colleagues that you work with.  Everyone here is an expert in their field, and passionate about research.  In my opinion, there really is no better place for students to learn about, and become involved in, cutting-edge science.