I did my undergrad in Biological Sciences at Oxford, where I attended as many plant modules as possible. Whilst evolution is a long-term interest of mine, I became interested in evodevo methods during my first year of undergrad, and really wanted to try overexpression and gene silencing experiments for myself. Cambridge felt like the best city in the UK to study Plant Sciences, as it contains so many groups (based in the main department, the Sainsbury lab, at NIAB etc) working and collaborating on such a wide array of topics. The Glover Lab was a very good fit to my interests- they use evodevo methods on evolutionarily relevant structures and organs, often in non-model organisms.
Aside from the excellent facilities and the brilliant scientists, the DoPS has several unexpected benefits that make it a great place in which to work. They have a shared tearoom where you can get your morning (and afternoon) tea/coffee, and where most people go to eat their lunch. The tearoom also doubles up as the venue for departmental beer hours, which take place most months and bring the whole department together over drinks and snacks. We also have a strong Postgraduate student community, and the Postgraduate representatives put on several events a term (such as bowling, movie nights, and pub trips) to allow PhD students to get to know each other outside the department.
Outside of work, plants are still one of my biggest passions – I try to get to the Botanic Garden or to walk around Jesus College's wildlife trail when I can find time, though in Jesus, I'm normally aiming to photograph birds rather than plants. I also do a lot of woodwork, baking, and painting, and have just finished whittling a circular wooden chain from a single piece of wood.