What Sarah Lindblom says about the Master's in Pharmaceutical Technology
Sarah Lindblom from Sweden
Sarah has studied some of the Pharmaceutical Technology courses as part of her Swedish Master's programme in Pharmaceuticals.
"I am expecting to graduate in late 2019. I have been studying in Lund for the past five years and have to admit it is a beautiful city to study in. It's quite small but filled with students and a lot of cosy 'fika' places, which may be the most important thing.
I started out studying Chemical Engineering and am doing my Master's in Pharmaceuticals. I really enjoyed the opportunity to choose courses closer to what I really enjoy studying and learning about.
My favourite courses have to have been the two initial courses in Pharmaceutical Formulation and Medicinal Chemistry, as well as the Surface and Colloid Chemistry course. The first two courses of the Master's give a good indication of what to expect from the rest of the programme and a really good introduction to how the pharmaceutical industry works and what you can work with, which got me excited for the rest of the courses to come. The Surface and Colloid Chemistry course was a total surprise to me – I didn’t really know what it was about but I found myself getting very invested in finding potential structures of emulsions and how a thick cream could contain 97% water and still be so thick and not just spread all over the place.
When it comes to my future, I am still unsure about what I want to do. I would like to work in the pharmaceutical industry, and hopefully help formulate new products, but you never know where you end up. I think the most important thing for me is to find a job that I enjoy once I have graduated. Since I have enjoyed studying pharmaceuticals, I wish to find a job within that area.
If you are interested in pharmaceuticals and wish to work with it in the future I can recommend this programme. Lund University is a really nice place and everyone here is welcoming and helpful. The programme also contains two projects, which is really good experience, and you get a feel of how things can be when you get an actual job. You get to plan and execute a project and as it is lab work, it never goes the way you want it to go, but that is part of the experience. I would suggest getting some experience in handling data, such as how to use Excel or MATLAB, or something similar, because you will need it to understand and present data collected in labs and projects."