Núria Aguilar Puig

Núria Aguilar Puig

Why did you decide to do a PhD project in our Department?

During my university studies on Food Science in the Veterinary Faculty at UAB I did an internship with a PhD student helping her to do her research about Gluten-Free formulations. Then, I realized that I wanted to continue my studies and I did the Master in the same center and my Master Thesis was also about Gluten-Free formulations. Then, I applied for a grant to the Spanish Government and on September of 2010 I started my PhD research and it was also about Gluten-Free Formulations. Therefore, I decided to do my PhD in this Department because I had all the needed requirements: I had an amazing project about Gluten-Free Bread, I knew almost all the team like professors, technicians, researchers, ... I had worked with the laboratory equipment and I had a grant.

What did you like the most of your academic experience?

For me the personal treatment and support from all of the team was very important. Starting from my directors Marta and Elena who helped me in all the situations that I needed. Sonia, the laboratory technician, that was always there when I had problems, and of course, my PhD colleagues that made the laboratory hard work easier. Moreover, the experience of share my research in different conferences was very important for me, and one of the best personal experiences that I remember from my PhD was to help organizing the 11th European Young Cereal Scientist and Technologist Workshop in our University.

What is your advice to potential students?

First of all I think that it is very important to share your research experiences like laboratory methodology, your problems, your achievements, your results, ... to other PhD students in order to improve your research. However, it is also important to not be pessimistic when the results are not like you expected because from these bad experiences you can learn and improve yourself as a person and as a researcher.