Natural Science at St. Catharine’s CollegeUniversity of Cambridge, St. Catharine's College |
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Physiology at St. Catharine’sMatthew J. Mason MA PhD PGCert SFHEA
Fellow and Director of Studies in Physiology
As University Physiologist, I am involved in lecturing, examining, running practicals, course organisation and research project supervision within the University, so I teach all Cambridge students reading physiology in these capacities. However, as Director of Studies in Physiology at St. Catharine's College, I have a special role in teaching students at this College, outlined below. I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, and I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the national body dedicated to enhancing the quality of education across UK universities. In 2018, I won a Pilkington Prize for Teaching from the University of Cambridge. Click on this link to see a video about my teaching. My scientific research is on the evolution of hearing in vertebrates; some examples of my work are shown on the left. Please follow the link to my Departmental homepage, which contains more information about my work. | |
DEXA (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) scan of a golden mole. The arrow points to the enlarged malleus, an ear ossicle. (from Dr. Mason's research work)
Micro-CT cross-sections of the ear-bones of golden moles: the colours represent their relative density (from Dr. Mason's research work)
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My aim as Director of Studies is to make sure that St. Catharine’s is a fantastic place to study Physiology, giving students from all backgrounds and many different countries every opportunity to develop their potential. I like to think that we have achieved this, our success being reflected in the large proportion of our undergraduate Natural Scientists who choose physiological courses, the success that they enjoy in the exams and the exciting careers that follow.This academic year (2018-9), 60% of my students got firsts in their exams. St. Catharine's had two students in the top ten in the first year, and students ranked 1, 2 and 5 in the second year - and there are thirty Colleges out there to choose from! Grades are not everything though. It's more important to me that our students really enjoy the subject, and develop an understanding which goes well beyond the exams. Over the last academic year (2019-20), 14
natural scientists from St. Catharine’s, representing most of our first-year biologists, read Physiology of Organisms. Four students read 1B Physiology, seven read 1B Neurobiology and 7 of our third-years take part 2 PDN. Given that there are so many options available to
Natural Scientists, St. Catharine’s has a high proportion of physiologists and neurobiologists: having a large group in your subject is important so that you always have friends to work with.
In the second year, I supervise our 1B Physiology students, while our 1B Neurobiology students are supervised by Prof. Jeff Dalley, another Departmental lecturer and examiner. Please see our Neuroscience at St. Catharine’s page for more details about Jeff and the neuro courses on offer. Third year supervisions are always organized on a Departmental rather than a College basis, and College academic duties in principle end there. However, at St. Catharine's I hold weekly coffee meetings for my students where we discuss physiological issues, from critically analyzing the latest research through to how best to put across your ideas in writing or in person. Interested in dissecting a dogfish? Fancy participating in some research based within the Arctic Circle? Need advice about which PhD position to go for? We'll go the extra mile to help St. Cats students to explore their interests. As well as providing the best possible preparation for the University exams, we believe that it is vital that our students should develop a deeper understanding of how organisms work and how scientific research is actually conducted, and we work hard to provide the best academic and social environment in which to develop your scientific career.
...and beyond
Click here for a list of some of our more famous natural scientists, many of whom will have studied physiology at some point!
For more information
If you are
interested in applying to read Natural Sciences at St. Catharine’s, please see our College admissions
webpage. If you are specifically interested in Physiology, and maybe
joining the Cats Physiology Team, then feel free to e-mail me,
mjm68@hermes.cam.ac.uk, with any
questions that you might have. Good luck!
Physiology is the study of how organs and organ systems work within the body, how they respond to changes in the external environment and how they help to maintain internal conditions compatible with life. Physiology represents the basis of medicine - in order to understand what goes wrong in disease, you need to understand how organs such as the heart, kidneys and gut function! Many physiologists are therefore interested in cells and tissues from this point of view, while other animal physiologists are interested in, for example, how different animals survive in unusual environments. Plant physiologists are interested in how plants might be manipulated to improve crop yield, or the implications of climate change on productivity. I outline in an appendix below the physiology modules that one can take in Cambridge. Physiology in Cambridge forms part of the Natural Sciences Tripos. It starts broadly, the Physiology of Organisms course seeking to identify key physiological principles through the comparison of animals, plants and microbes. In the second and third year, the physiology courses are entirely animal-based and focused more on human physiology (you can choose to study aspects of plant physiology separately, within Plant Sciences, if you are interested in that area). Options a student interested in physiology would take would include the following:
Second
year: NST 1B Physiology
Third year: NST part 2 Physiology, Development &
Neuroscience (PDN)
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