My PhD is very much my own work, and my supervisor is brilliant at giving me the freedom to take the research where I want, with her guidance. My team just comprises of me, and my two supervisors, as we have a very small, very new lab at Portsmouth. Its certainly peaceful!
Apart from PhDs which need to be your own work (and Kat has answered about this topic) I dont know many researchers who work alone, probably computer modellers!
Almost all research I know is in teams, for example, during fieldwork I cant collect any data by myself, I need someone else to hold survey poles, lay out grids, help with kit etc. When puzzling through a problem, it is also great to bounce potential solutions off one another.
It would also get kind of boring working by yourself all the time!
Mostly as part of a team. Some times I do scene work alone but not very often. I also lead a team of scientists in conducting forensic science research
I work alone most of the time. Sussex is a large county but there are only eight collision investigators in our unit, all based at Shoreham-by-Sea. We are in pairings, covering day and late shifts. between half past midnight and 8 am there is a call-out arrangement.
The pairings are split, so that one officer covers the western and northern parts of the county and the other covers the central ( Brighton) and eastern parts. that is about 1500 square miles each. Then when the other officer is away, on holiday, or courses, the cover is by the remaining one. A big area which, even on ‘blues and twos’ takes well over an hour to get to the furthest crashes. Don’t forget though, other police and ambulance officers. local to the collision are there first. I am called by them, once they decide that it is a serious or fatal collision.
If the collision is a really big scene, then I may call a colleague, if one is working.
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