The final PhD student for whom I will act as lead supervisor is scheduled to finish this month.  I have graduated forty PhD students since I was appointed a lecturer in 1985.  I am still in touch with many of them – they are divided between industry and universities with a bias towards industry (about 60%).  For the first twenty years, I was a sole academic supervisor often with an industrial supervisor providing support.  Then I moved to the US where a PhD committee provides supervisory guidance to the student and supervisor.  By the time I returned to the UK, about fifteen years ago, it had become accepted practice to appoint a second supervisor for each PhD student.  So, although I decided a couple of years ago not to accept any new PhD students as lead supervisor, I am acting as second supervisor for five students.  This is a great role since you have less responsibility, but you are engaged with the exciting research.  The topics vary from understanding the nanoscale mechanics of particles interacting with cells (see, for example, ‘Label-free real-time tracking of individual bacterium‘ on January 25, 2023 through to ‘Structural damage assessment using infrared detectors in fusion environments‘ on March 15, 2023), and just starting this year, innovative methods for communicating confidence in computational models.  Although the research is exciting, at a training session for supervisors during the CDT Winter School that I attended in January (see ‘Experiencing success vicariously‘ on January 7, 2026), we discussed our roles as supervisors and in particular that the research project is not the principal outcome of the PhD.  Instead, the development of the PhD student is the principal outcome.  It’s all about nurturing and mentoring people and the reward is experiencing their success vicariously.

Image: still from a video of a graduation ceremony at the University of Liverpool on December 9, 2025.  As Dean of the School of Engineering, I am at the lectern presenting PhD graduates, but I am hidden behind the Vice-Chancellor who has his back to the camera on the extreme left of the image.  You can watch the video at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/graduation/the-ceremony/watch-graduation/catch-up/school-of-engineering/9-december-2025-10am/ .