Dr Ruth Monk successfully defended their PhD thesis entitled ‘Modelling Huntington’s Disease Using Direct Cell Reprogramming’ in June and is set to graduate in December. Ruth’s PhD was supervised by Professor Bronwen Connor and Dr Kathryn Jones.
Ruth was awarded the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand Postgraduate Gillespie Scholarship, a University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship, and a Brain Research New Zealand Postgraduate Research Grant for their doctoral studies.
While no one expects a PhD to be easy, Ruth often felt like surviving their PhD was an impossibility. Ruth explains how their neurodiversity diagnoses of autism and ADHD and their access to support from the Equity Office’s Student Disability Services and an Inclusive Learning advisor helped them complete their doctorate.
Ruth stated that “one of the most helpful things I found about seeing an Inclusive Learning advisor was how the support they provided was flexible and completely tailored to my specific situation and challenges.”
Now a postdoctoral research fellow in the FMHS Centre for Brain Research with Professor Maurice Curtis, Ruth has embraced their neurodiversity and hopes that their accomplishments will be seen as a product of their neurodiversity, and not in spite of it.
Ruth stated that “My ability to think of a multitude of different explanations and interpretations might be considered a strength in research.”