Profile

I’m originally from a small town in Central Scotland called Falkirk. I can’t remember when I first decided I loved science but I was always curious growing up and loved solving puzzles. I first moved to Aberdeen in 2008 to study medicine. Overall, I really enjoyed my medical degree but as it became more clinical and I gained a better understanding of what being a doctor would be like, I began wondering if it was for me. Between my 4th and 5th years, I did an intercalated BSc where I took a year out of medicine and joined the final year of the Neuroscience degree. It was an incredibly steep learning curve but I had a phenomenal year! I reached a turning point where I realised I loved the science much more than medicine. I therefore decided I wanted to work in science and started looking for PhDs. While I was studying in Aberdeen, I was a really keen archer and joined the university club which is where I met my husband, Johan. We’ve been together for 8 1/2 years and married for nearly 2. He’s been my biggest supporter by far and was happy to move to Manchester with me in 2014 for my PhD then all the way back to Aberdeen in 2019.

In my spare time, I guess I would say I dabble in a lot of different hobbies. I enjoy keeping fit by running and dancing (badly). I’m currently very into sewing clothes while listening to audiobooks. I’m a big cat lover and we have an 18 year grumpy but lovable rescue cat called Marzipan. Her hobbies include sleeping facedown and having socially distanced fights through the window with our neighbour’s cat.

I’m actually in a really exciting stage of my career right now. I’ve just started a new role as teaching fellow in physiology and pharmacology in the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition at the University of Aberdeen. It’s a big change for me because my previous job was research-focussed so I have so much to learn but I love a challenge! The team are fantastic so I know I will be well supported. My job will involve teaching medical science students about how the body works, what goes to wrong to cause disease and how drugs can be used to fix it. I will be doing a combination of lab practicals, tutorials and lectures (some in person and some online depending on the pandemic situation). Another very important aspect to the job is the admin side including organising courses and setting assessments.

I can share a typical day in my previous job as a research fellow though. I’d get up at 7.30 am to feed our cat and myself. I’d start working from my desk at home from 8.30/9.00 am by checking emails and handling any admin tasks such as ordering for the lab (e.g. chemicals, flasks for growing cells). If I didn’t have any meetings scheduled (e.g. catch ups with my supervisors, group lab meetings) I’d spend the rest of the morning on desk-based tasks such as analysing data, giving feedback on students’ work and writing. This job did involve quite a lot of writing including grants to get additional research funding and writing up research papers. Some researchers I know absolutely hate writing but I’ve always really enjoyed it! From a lot of experimenting, I’ve found late morning to early afternoon seems to be the time of day I get my best writing done which is why I often structured my days this way. After lunch with my husband, I’d go into the lab for the afternoon. This might include checking and feeding my cells or taking images on the microscope. I might also help the PhD students by training them to do some lab techniques or giving advice. I’d head home at 5.30/6 pm to do some exercise and have dinner.

A great thing about being a researcher is that in a way, there isn’t a typical day because the work is so varied. For example, there were days when I’d be in the lab all day because I had a big experiment on and on other days, I didn’t do any lab work because I was helping run tutorials for undergraduate students.