Profile

My work covers a range of areas linked to bugs that make you sick and how we can prevent this. I work with the microbes carried by some blood-sucking “insects” including ticks and lice. This can mean going to collect these by dragging a blanket around in the woods! We are also looking at some microbes that cause tummy upsets (diarrhoea) so we are about to start looking at pooh (stool) samples from our study participants. We will also be looking at spit samples for a new organism that may have a link with making you sick. We try to grow these microbes and understand how they make us feel ill. This can help us to understand how we can prevent this.

As I work as a scientist in a University, I also teach our students. To do this you have to prepare what you will say and tasks that will help the students learn about microbes in the laboratories.

Also part of the work includes telling others about our findings. This is done through going to meetings where you give lectures and trying to get results of work published in books and journals.

Every job also has to consider money too. Scientists cannot do their work without money to cover the costs, so part of my job is to try to find sources of financial support to continue my work.

After a long journey around the M25, I try to arrive by 9am. What happens next in my day varies. Some days are teaching days when I might be giving lectures, or in the laboratories with my students. Other days I might be in the laboratories either guiding the work of my research students or doing my own laboratory work. I often have meetings too that can range from University administration to scientific meetings. Some of these are in the UK, but others have taken me to many parts of the world including Africa, America, and many European countries. Similarly, my reserch has taken me to incredible places where I would never have visited otherwise. These can make a big impression about the impact of microbes upon human health and the need to control infections to preserve life.

Often my day will not finish until fairly late, but I try to leave by 7pm. The day does not feel long as I love what I do. So much so that at weekends I still continue what I can from home (not laboratory work though!). Being a scientist helps you question everything in your life, which is no bad thing, but can be frustrating when you don’t always find an answer, but instead have ten more questions!