hi everyone,
I was just wondering whether my minor colour blindness will ever impede me from doing a phd in biochemistry, i.e. protein engineering? hope anyone familiar with this field can give your opinion as my interest in this field is second to none. thanks very much.

im color blind and doing a phd. i dont see why that should be a problem?

You will be fine doing it. You may have difficulty doing certain assays by eye, but usually the colour changes are quite obvious. Or more likely you use a spec anyway to quantify.

Hi citro177,

I think the key issue is to be frank and honest about it. This will help in making sure that you get some help regarding readings which may be difficult for you. From an occupational health point of view it does not seem to be a big issue, unless you would do a job where it is very important that you can differentiate (e.g. pilots etc.). So find out what explicitly you need to do during your PhD and discuss with supervisor / university if there are any doubts whether you could do these.

thanks guys. i am just concern of how people would react when i tell them that. i am not sure of the people in the uk, but my colleagues in my home country was quite suprised when i revealed that i have mild colour blindness. they asked wouldn't that be a problem for me especially in laboratory work. so far i am doing well, just submitted my masters thesis today.

I'm not sure if things like colour blindness give an advantage, I've often though my dyslexia may have helped me along the way. I've always had to work harder to limit its effect and double check everything. Perhaps that diligence will apply in your case also?

The head of school at the institue I teach at is colour blind and he has a PhD. His feild was signal processing he went into it after failing all the aplitude tests as an electrical engineer because of his colour blindness. Strangly enough the head of school at the institute I'm currently studying for my phd at (their not the same place) who retired last year was also colour blind, he did alot of research into autonomous systems, compiler theory and parralell systems.

Tiggs

Tiggs

thanks tigger, that was really inspiring and I admire your dilligence and persistence.

My friend gave up chemistry because he was colour blind - couldn't see the difference in the experiments

You shouldn't be held back because of your colour blindness. Surely there can be alterations made to suit you (like using a different dye for an assay or changing the colours in a program). I don't much about protein enginnering but it would unfair if you couldn't do a PhD in it just because you're colour blind. Contact the DSA (which helped me with my dyslexia) to see if they can offer any support such as special equipment.