benstallard.com
Personal survey · Route record
I'm a quantitative researcher with an imaging-and-coding background, finishing a PhD on the structural correlates of human navigation. I'm looking to branch into data science and data engineering so that I can build real, careful, technical things and ship them. I'll be moving to Singapore once I've completed my PhD.
Route strip · York → Singapore
53°57′N 1°05′W · 2013–2016
Where my academic journey began. I started off with a BA in Philosophy, mainly analytic philosophy. This is where I learned how to think deeply and carefully about a problem, to break it down into its logical components, and to communicate my ideas effectively.
35°06′N 129°02′E · 2017–2018
I spent a year teaching English in South Korea on the EPIK programme, working alongside 4 excellent Korean co-teachers to deliver immersive English-language experiences to young children.
21°02′N 105°46′E · 2018
I spent about nine months in Vietnam teaching English at a private school in Ha Noi, and working to improve their department through curriculum changes.
35°06′N 129°02′E · 2019
I moved back to Busan, South Korea, this time to a private school where I taught various subjects in English during the morning, and then taught English Language to teens and adults in the afternoon.
53°57′N 1°05′W · 2019–2020
I returned back to the UK for a BPS-accredited conversion MSc in Psychology in Education. I chose this course specifically because of my experience working with children with special needs, and I wanted to learn why we differ as individuals in our abilities. This was the first step of my pivot from the humanities toward research, and the beginning of my interest in individual differences.
53°29′N 2°14′W · 2020–2021
I moved mid-pandemic and finished the MSc dissertation in Manchester. I ended up suffering from long COVID that September, days after I submitted my dissertation, and it took the better part of a year to shake off. I forced myself to work through the brain-fog in an attempt to reduce/cure it, and it was during this recovery period that I developed my interest in neuroscience.
52°38′N 1°18′E · 2021–2024
Following my COVID recovery, I decided to pursue an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at UEA to get back on my feet and learn more about my newly-developed interest. Unfortunately, my MSc was followed by a hard interlude: a botched surgery that took more than half a year to put right, and slim local employment options in the aftermath resulted in more than a year of downtime. I used that time to search for the right PhD.
51°25′N 0°34′W · 2024–present
After a long search, I accepted a position on the LIDo doctoral training programme, based at Royal Holloway. My rotation year came first, during which I completed two projects: one focused on the link between brain structure and navigation with Carl Hodgetts, Szonya Durant and Andrew Lawrence, and the other looked at surprise, vision and pupil responses with Jonas Larsson. The following year, my main PhD project began, where I investigate which structural brain measures predict individual ability to navigate around the world. I've been building the tools I need to answer this question as I go.
1°21′N 103°49′E · next
Where the road is heading. I'm looking towards a career in data science and engineering, or potentially the space between industry and academia; A*STAR in Singapore is the obvious anchor. We were married here, so it would be a fitting destination.
End of surveyed route
A route that started in philosophy and ended up in MRI scanners, by way of years of teaching across East Asia, a pandemic that rerouted everything, and a stubborn habit of building my way out of setbacks.
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