I, Zhao Chen, am an Associate Professor with the School of Computer Science and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai, China and a Visiting Researcher (01/09/2023-31/08/2024) with the Department of Computer Science, the University of Warwick, UK. My interests are in computational analysis for various kinds of images, including pathology, remote sensing and fabric images.

Thanks to Professor Nasir Rajpoot who kindly invited me and always stood by my side, I finally arrived in the UK in September 2023. The academic visit was delayed for almost three years due to the unexpected Covid. Luckily, Nasir, the whole TIA team, the University of Warwick, my home university and China Scholarship Council (CSC) which sponsored this visit did not give up on me. I’m truly feeling obliged to every one of them.

Honestly speaking, when I first came to the main campus of UW, I was a little surprised by its modern style which is unlike the historical ones of Cambridge or Oxford. However, almost immediately, it filled me with a sense of familiarity as most campus of Chinese universities built in the recent decade, including Donghua where I came from, adopt a similar style-grand buildings with large windows. On my first day, Katie Martin welcomed me on the ground floor of the DCS building and walked me through the registration steps. She is very professional, always ready to answer my questions and fix my problems. The TIA team members have also offered me lots of help as well as fun. The chatting, laughing and food sharing in the staff room are sweet memories that will stay with me forever. Especially thanks to Professor David Epstein and his lovely wife Rona, who invited me to their house on New Year’s Eve and gave me an unforgettable night with their beloved friends and guests.

As for the research in the TIA centre, the works produced here are certainly first-class in the area of computational pathology. I really appreciate the opportunities to attend the weekly meetings and participate in the project on PDL1 slide analysis. I’m deeply impressed by the seriousness everyone takes and the patience they have from data collection to paper publication. I’m more overwhelmed by the relaxed working environment here. In Shanghai, it seems that everybody rushes from one project to another to avoid being under-rated or discarded by the system. However, what researchers really need are not intensive assessment, but to be freed of anxiety, given abundant time to deliberate on their proposals and repeatedly test their hypotheses. Looking on the bright side, I’m glad to see that the academic protocols, ideas, techniques and facilities we have in China are not much different from those in England.

With less than two months left, I’m going to carry on finishing my work in the TIA centre while enjoying every minute I have in the UK. Being a great fan of English novels and drama as well the enchanting sceneries presented by them, I have visited many places during the weekends. The vast fields passed by train, the magnificent house in Chatsworth, the cute cottages in Cotswold, the windy cliff by the seaside in Wales, the black-faced sheep and the angry sea birds, and the bluebells in the woods besides the Gilbert campus of UW, all offered me lots of comfort and soothed my mind.

Thanks to all, this year has been wonderful.