Profile

I live with my rescue dog Willow and we like to go out walking when we’re not doing science. I’m a keen cook and I love to travel and see new places.

In my PhD I look at a group of bacteria who carry out a process called denitrification. This is a really important process because it takes plant-available nitrogen out of the soil leading to poor crop growth. It’s also responsible for a really strong greenhouse gas (400 X stronger than CO2!) and involved in ozone depletion. However, a tiny subset of this group of bacteria are the only biological way of getting rid of this greenhouse gas.

I do a lot of field trials and look at the DNA of the bacteria in the soil. I also grow the bacteria (it’s quite difficult to grow most soil bacteria) and see if they can do denitrification with colour-change tests.

Fieldwork days: I get up really early and go to the fieldwork site in walking boots and waterproofs (always be prepared for rain!). I spend the day outside collecting soil from given locations across fields. I need to be very precise when I’m collecting soils and make sure all of the equipment is cleaned properly between samples to prevent contamination. I usually work on my own and stop frequently for tea breaks and snacks.

Lab days: I work in a busy lab with lots of other people doing different things. What I do in the lab is quite variable, but often includes extracting DNA from bacteria and amplifying a “bar-code” gene so we can tell what species it is after sequencing. I also grow a lot of different bacteria and test if they can do the process I’m interested in.

Computer days: I spend a lot of time analysing huge amounts of data on my computer using coding. This allows us to analyse DNA sequences and lots of other data to answer the questions we ask. We also use computer models to predict things in biology to answer questions a different way.