Profile
Victoria Woolley
My CV
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Education:
Crowle First School, Pinvin Middle School, Pershore High School, The University of Warwick (where I did my BSc and Phd).
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Qualifications:
10 GCSEs,
4 A levels (Biology, Chemistry, Maths, French),
B.Sc. Biological Sciences,
PhD Life Sciences. -
Work History:
Elf at a Christmas tree farm! – Office work at a landscape company- Research assistant at Warwick Crop Centre.
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Current Job:
I am currently a researcher at the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich. I mostly work on one project where I identify insects from farms in Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania to work out which are best at controlloing pest insects that eat farmers’ crops. I also research fungi that infect and kill insects so we can use them to control insect pests.
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About Me:
I’m a molecular biologist who likes insects (especially wasps)! I like to travel for work and for fun, where I keep my eyes open for any exciting bugs.
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Read more
I am from Worcester, but currently live in Gillingham (Kent). I love to travel (for fun and with work) and I also love eating anything sweet. Here’s a photo of me combining my love of travel and sweet things by eating a rainbow candyfloss in Japan! I am also part of the lunchtime board games club at work and like reading.
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Read more
I work with lots of other researchers on a project to use natural enemies to control pest insects in East Africa. These natural enemies might be predators like ladybirds (picture on the left) that eat other insects, or parasitoid wasps (picture on the right) that lay their eggs in pest insects and eat them from the inside out!
Our partners in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi trap insects on bean farms using sticky traps (picture below), pan traps and sweeps nets. I then take them back to our lab in the UK where I identify natural enemies using DNA sequencing.
Once I have worked out what the most important natural enemies are, we can come up with ways to attract them to farms. For example, we can plant flowers on farms that adult parasitoid wasps feed on or that provide shelter to ladybirds.
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My Typical Day:
I spend most of the day in the laboratory. I work on getting DNA from my insect samples and sequencing them to work out what they are.
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Read more
The first thing I do when I arrive at work is to look after the aphids (picture below), a pest insect that we keep at NRI. I do this by watering plants and giving them new plants to eat. We sometimes use these aphids in experiments to see whether natural enemies kill different numbers of aphids under different conditions.
I then do work in the laboratory (pictures below). I normally extract DNA from insects collected in Africa by grinding them up and doing some reactions. I then sequence the DNA to work out what the insects are.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
A scientist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not very often
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Dua Lipa
What's your favourite food?
Chocolate
Tell us a joke.
Why does the mushroom get invited to all the parties? Because he's a fun guy.
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