As a child I was interested in wildlife and botany from a very young age, including an early interest in evolutionary biology. So after gaining strong GCSEs, a silver CREST Award for an ecology project, and A'Levels including biology, chemistry and maths, I attended Imperial College's Department of Agricultural Science at Wye (formerly Wye College, University of London) to pursue a BSc degree in Environmental Biology.
My undergraduate degree had a strong ecology and conservation biology focus, as well as modules in agricultural subjects such as crop protection, plant nutrition and forestry. As I spent time at the agricultural college, I increasingly realised the importance of agriculture as a major land use. My undergraduate project studied the impact of management practices on plant diversity on setaside land, involving long hours on a hillside with a quadrat in the rain! I was awarded a First Class Honours degree, Wye's Wibberley Prize for Environmental Concern, the University of London's Elizabeth Hocart Prize in Botanty, and Full Union Colours for representing Wye students at Imperial.
While enjoying my undergraduate studies in ecology, I realised I still wanted to study evolutionary biology in greater depth. Therefore, after completing my BSc degree, I studied an MSc in Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity, registered with Imperial College and based at the Natural History Museum in London, funded by a NERC (UK Natural Environment Research Council) Advanced Course Studentship. During this course, I developed in-depth knowledge of evolutionary theory, and especially phylogenetics, and gained an appreciation of how much molecular biology can tell us about evolutionary history.
The MSc course included a three-month research project. I looked at the evolution of different reproductive strategies in European species of the moss genus Dicranum. This involved practical molecular biology to obtain sequence data, follwed by molecular phylogenetic analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods. I passed the MSc with Distinction, was invited to present my project results at a Departmental Seminar for the Natural History Museum Botany Department, and presented a poster at the London Evolutionary Research Network's annual student conference where I won first prize for best poster.
The MSc research project really opened my eyes to the tools molecular biology provides for the study of evolution, and made me determined to pursue a molecular evolution PhD. After completing my MSc, I spent the following months doing temporary administrative work, for employers including a solar panel installation company and an NHS trust. This is where I'm supposed to emphasise the transferrable skills this gave me, such as dealing with a range of people, typing more quickly and knowing exactly where to hit the photocopier when it makes that ominous whirring noise, but my main focus at this time was PhD applications. I also spent some time on science communication activities for the Wild Flower Society.
I was delighted to be offered a studentship at Rothamsted Research, for a project studying evolutionary biology in the context of agriculture. Having secured a PhD studentship for the following autumn and saved some money from working, I took the opportunity to do some gap year travelling. As an aspiring evolutionary biologist, the Galapagos Islands were a natural choice, so I spent a month volunteering at the Jatun Sacha nature reserve, San Cristobal. Weekdays were spent scrub-bashing (removing invasive brambles) and replanting native trees; weekends were spent experiencing the amazing wildlife and Ecuadorian culture. Then back to England, and a few weeks later I started my PhD.