Profile
Giampiero Valenzano
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About Me:
Hey! ♥
My name is Giamp, I am a DOCTOR from ITALY and I am doing my PhD in OXFORD. 👩🔬
Right now I am not working in the hospital with patients, but I spend all my days in the lab, doing experiments. My hope and dream is to find new ways to treat cancer.
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I like going for walks outdoors and working out at the gym. I also love being at the beach because the town where I am from originally is very close to the seaside, in the south of Italy.
This is what the sea looks like where I am from… Isn’t it amazing? The water is absolutely crystal clear
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My pronouns are:
He/him 🏳️🌈
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My Work:
I study cancer of the pancreas. The pancreas is an organ in your body that helps you break down food into smaller parts so that nutrients can be absorbed from the food you eat. When a cancer grows into the pancreas, the organ becomes ill and stops working, so people with this disease are very poorly. My research tries to make this cancer less bad for people.
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My Typical Day:
My typical day is like this:
I weak up around 8am and have a nice, big breakfast
I cycle to work and start planning what to do
At around 9am I start doing my experiments
Before leaving work (at around 6pm), I make sure I analyse my data
(so that I know if my experiments have succeeded or failed)I leave work in the late afternoon and then head to the gym to relax a bit while working out
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would like to speak to children in schools about cancer. Unfortunately this is still a taboo for many, despite the fact that 1 in 2 people will get cancer. It is a condition that affects EVERYONE (children included, sadly), and it would be nice to let children simply know what it is, whether it is themselves with the condition or their parents/relatives/friends. At my university, for example, we wanted to produce a nice poster with some key cancer facts explained in a way that is comprehensible by the lay audience.
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Education:
I went to high school in Italy (where I am from). In Italy there are 2 main types of high schools for students who want to go to uni afterwards: one focussed on Humanities and one focussed on the Sciences. I did the latter. As opposed to what happens here in the UK, we cannot choose subjects to study (as you do for A-levels, for example), so I had to study subjects that I really loved, like Biology or Chemistry, and others that I loved… a bit less (like philosophy).
I then went to med school in Rome, where I qualified as a doctor.
After that, I was abroad for a while (in Sweden first, and Cambridge, UK, after), to become more skilled with research techniques.
At the end I relocated to Oxford, where I am now doing my PhD in Cancer Sciences
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Qualifications:
- Italian Scientific High School Diploma
- Medical School (MBBS)
- PhD (in progress…)
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Work History:
I worked as a research assistant in Cambridge for 1 year to become better prepared for a job in the lab.
During med school I worked in the library.
When I was younger I also worked in the fields where I am from (making sure grapes grew as nice as they possibly could). It was tough but it did give earn me some money and taught me a lot (punctuality and discipline).
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Employer:
University of Oxford
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
A doctor
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I once was sent out of the classroom because I couldn't stop laughing at something; I was so embarrassed and felt sorry but apologised and all went well
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Travel the world and write blogs about all the places I visit
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Dua Lipa
What's your favourite food?
PIZZA, PIZZA, PIZZA
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Be rich, have endless time for travels, have another wish
Tell us a joke.
What do you call a Spanish man who really loves camping in the forests? Con-tent... (It only works if you know Spanish and English sorryyy!)
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