"Think about the impact you can have on the quality of the world we share." That’s the advice that Ramana Kumar gives to new students. Ramana studied the Bachelor of Philosophy at ANU and is now completing a PhD at Cambridge University.

"The advantage of the PhB was the freedom I got to explore my interests," Ramana said. "I studied a variety of science subjects. I made sure to include a lot of mathematics because I enjoy that subject and it's generally useful. But I also studied chemistry, biology, psychology, and, eventually, computer science."

Ramana’s dabbling in computer science led to his current studies. "My Honours supervisor recommended applying to a grant funded PhD position at Cambridge that was advertised on an email list. I didn't apply to that in the end, but he got me interested in the prospect of coming here."

"Whilst the focus of my PhD is currently uncertain, the general area is mechanised reasoning, with applications to safety/security critical computer systems. The aim is to answer the question 'does the system have any bugs?' with a formal proof."

Yet, it wasn’t just in science that Ramana managed to explore what ANU had to offer. "I play piano and viola and I sometimes sing. Whilst at ANU I played and sang in SCUNA (a University choir) and at various one off opportunities at the School of Music as they came up. It was great to be able to use the School of Music’s facilities, even though I wasn’t a music student."

Ramana says that there are some key things to think about when you start at uni. "Be bold and think big! Don't be afraid of talking to people, even those of apparently higher status. Think about the world in the scale of millennia, not always just days, or think about the universe and all people, not always just your country or organisation. But most of all, do what you're good at, and do what you enjoy. They will hopefully overlap significantly. This is important for your happiness."