Physiology at St. Catharine’s
Matthew 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.
The Catz Physiology Team
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. St. Catharine’s has excellent library facilities, dedicated Fellows in biological subjects and the student-run John Ray Society, our Natural Science society named after our famous 17th century alumnus, which runs lectures and other events within St. Catharine’s.
One of the most important factors that contributes to our success is that the Cats Physiology Team is a very friendly and coherent group. Our undergrads help and support each other across the years, our PhD students join in too, and ex-students who have graduated frequently return every year to join in our traditional Christmas social (see photos on the left) and other events.
What makes St. Catharine’s special
In Cambridge, each Natural Science student gets an hour’s supervision per subject per week in the first and second years, arranged by their College (third year supervisions are always organised by the Departments). The personal attention offered in these supervisions, which are typically in groups of one supervisor and three students, represents one of the most important benefits of Cambridge teaching which is available at few other institutions. Supervisions are also the primary way in which the Colleges differ in terms of the teaching offered to their students, since lectures, practicals and exams are organised by the departments, but supervisions are organised separately by each College.
I have a key role in physiology teaching across the university, but I only supervise St. Catharine's students personally. St. Catharine's supervisions in physiology are unique in several respects. For starters, only a small number of lecturers in our department are attached to Colleges and supervise Natural Science students, but we have established lecturers supervising both physiology and neuroscience. Secondly, Physiology of Organisms is a comparative physiology course, covering plants and microbes as well as animals, and so it is most common to find separate supervisors teaching different parts of the course. At St. Catharine's, however, we believe that it is important to consider the underlying principles common both to plants and animals, focusing then on the reasons for the interesting differences that exist between them. My supervisions run throughout the year, covering all aspects of the course: they emphasize unifying themes and offer the necessary comparative perspective. Trips to the University Botanical Gardens help our students to see the actual organisms themselves and put some of what they have learned in context, and I give a range of seminars to bring together knowledge from diverse subject areas. We also take pains to organise other opportunities for our students to pursue their scientific interests outside of the classroom, including experience in research laboratories in the vacations. One of our students is often selected to go to CalTech, California, for an extended research visit (as well as seeing some National Parks!).
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
Our Natural Science graduates often continue to read for PhD degrees or start courses in postgraduate medicine, but some leave science and go to work in the City or elsewhere, for example beginning start-up companies to apply their scientific knowledge within the "real world". We keep in touch with our former students regularly, of course, and they are frequently invited back for dinners or other events.
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!
Appendix: Studying Physiology and Neurobiology in Cambridge
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:
First year: NST 1A Physiology of Organisms
Second year: NST 1B Physiology and NST 1B Neurobiology
Third year: NST part 2 Physiology, Development & Neuroscience (PDN) or NST part 2 Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB)
The first year course must be combined with two other sciences plus a maths course. For example, many "biological" students at St. Catharine’s take Physiology of Organisms together with Biology of Cells, Chemistry and Mathematical Biology. You must take three second-year science courses, for example Physiology, Neurobiology and Pharmacology. The third year courses stand alone, but within PDN you can choose from a number of modules and specialise in systems physiology, developmental biology or neuroscience, or you can take a straight Neuroscience course. Please follow this link to the Departmental Physiology teaching pages for more details of these courses.
Please see our web-page on Neuroscience at St. Catharine’s for more details about specifically neuro-based options.