Day in the Life of a Computational Chemist PhD candidate.

Hey! I am Nisha Khurana(@uohyd_thesis), doing PhD in University of Hyderabad (India). I am a Computational Chemist. Being a computational chemist, sometimes it becomes boring to sit on a chair for the whole day. But, I use to involve myself in many interesting things which make me happier and make my life more colourful.

I just started my 2nd year of PhD and I am happy that I learnt a lot of things in my first year. I am doing my work in a Linux machine which is newer to me but my supervisor and seniors helped me alot to get used to it. Currently, I am working theoretically on how porous materials can be used to absorb different kinds of gases.

Capturing things attract me alot. That’s why I made an Instagram page where I put photos and videos regularly. This university is very beautiful with a variety of flora and fauna. Also, I live in the University Hostel itself and sometimes I cook my own food. I feel blessed to have the people in my life. I hope you will enjoy my casual Friday.

I woke up at 6:10 AM. That day I had a meeting with my supervisor so I woke up a little early. I had lukewarm water and went for a jog.

Did 4-5 KM jog and then some stretching. I love to do morning exercise or Yoga even for a short time. I get a weird satisfaction after working out. I don’t do exercise or Yoga everyday but i try to do either in the morning or evening.

On the way back to the hostel, I found some beautiful flowers so it took some time to capture them and I was late for the lab. So, I made a mug of Coffee and brought it to the lab. I had Coffee and Nuts so that it could fill me till 12:30 PM. Started the day with  learning new terminal commands and sipping coffee.

Took a short break, went to fill my water bottle and in between i found this beautiful Lotus as i said earlier my campus is full of flowers.

Had a delicious Lunch. My friend and I prepared lunch. We prepared yellow Pulse and had tasty buttermilk. Being a haryanvi, We both love buttermilk so we usually make it.

Went back to the lab with this scenery. There are dogs in this picture as my hostel is a shelter for dogs also.

Meeting with my supervisor was over. We discussed what I had done. I was getting some problems and errors in the simulation so we discussed that also. Then, I went to the school of Chemistry office for some documentation work. While coming back I saw this periodic table. It is newly installed at the entrance of my building.

Ended the lab work with this beautiful structure. Here I am using Avogadro software to see the different atoms and their position. I did a lot of test runs to improve the things I am working on. I was tired at this point so came back to the hostel after that.

Had dinner, Talked to my family over call. Then,I had a conversation with my friend about studies.

Ended the day with this tasty red velvet mug cake. It was a busy day and I learnt new things. Improved some mistakes and that’s how a day should be.