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I did my undergrad in Natural Sciences at University of Cambridge, meaning that I’ve been around the Department before and was lectured by many of Professors. It was the incredibly friendly and fun atmosphere that I encountered then and continue to do so into the 2nd year of my PhD that drew me to applying to the Department. I hadn’t been considering a PhD really beforehand but heard of a project in Prof. Paszkowski’s lab during my final year that got me excited about research and wanting to explore more. After incredible support from Uta and members of the lab, I decided to apply for the project and haven’t looked back since. 

I love working in the Department of Plant Sciences. I’ve had the chance to meet members from many labs around the Department and it’s the diversity in people and projects that I enjoy; in Plants there’s a great opportunity to working alongside and learn from a bunch of brilliant and inspiring researchers on a day-to-day basis. The tea-room has fast become one of my favourite places, with people always around for a chat and to offer advice on project niggles. The Postgraduate community in the Department is also great, there’s many social activities, beer hours and talks throughout the year to get involved in.

I really enjoy volunteering and am part of the ‘BigSib’ programme with Cambridge Student Community Action, a great student-led charity with loads of projects to get involved in. I’m also an avid attendee of college Zumba classes and play on the first team for Cambridge Uni Korfball Club. In Cambridge there’s both uni-wide and college-led societies to join, meaning there’s loads of opportunity to get involved with activities outside of PhD. I’ve also had some great opportunities in the Department; I’m a Postgraduate Student Representative, a demonstrator for undergrad practical classes (that I once myself attended!) and part of JR Biotek, an initiative created to support knowledge transfer and molecular biology training of scientists in Africa.