Profile

Candidate CV questions (extra)

• Education:

  School/Sixth Form: Gowerton Comprehensive School, Swansea, Wales.

  Undergraduate Degree: BSc. Environmental Science at Aberystwyth University, Wales.

  Graduate Degree: PhD in Fungal Ecology and Systematics at Aberystwyth University, Wales.

   

• Qualifications:

  I left school with a mismash of A Levels, since the subjects I enjoyed most were English, Art, and Chemistry. Not really a good combination for a career – I’d recommend anyone reading this to be a little bit more focused! But also try to do what you love.

  I did a BSc. in Environmental Science at Aberystwyth University mainly because I wanted a science-based job which involved some outdoor working. This degree was really an eye-opener for me, covering a vast range of different topics from geology and geochemistry, to ecology and plant biology and microbiology, to environmental issues and law. One big advantage of the course structure was that you could select your own pathway through the many options, following your interests or targets for future jobs.

  Out of all of these topics I found microbiology, plant biology, and geochemistry absolutely fascinating. So I did my BSc. dissertation on the fungi that are found in plant roots on heavy metal contaminated mine sites.

  

  Fungal microsclerotia (densely packed balls of fungal hyphae) in grass roots.

  I then carried this topic into a PhD, researching the identity of the fungi present in grass plant roots using culturing and DNA based identification. A large part of this work was surveying for the suspected sexual states of these root-colonising fungi and their relatives, so that I could compare their DNA and names to what was turning up in grass roots.

  

  An undescribed species of Pyrenopeziza (a tiny cup fungus), found on dead tissue on living grass stems in the National Botanic Gardens Wales, Carmarthen.

  This was where I started to realise that there was an enormous but microscopic world of mysteries out there, which need people with lab skills as well as field mycological skills, to work out what fungi are doing what and where in different plants and habitats around the world.

• Work History:

  Before university I worked as a merchandiser at TESCO, rearranging products on the shop floor.

  After university I did a few months of post-doc work at Aberystwyth University, looking at the effects of heat and drought on the fungi that occur in silage (“pickled” grass that is fed to animals such as cows in the winter).

  After that I coordinated a five year volunteer-based fungal conservation project at Kew – the Lost and Found Fungi project. As part of this project I spent a lot of time traveling around the UK, meeting regional fungus recording groups, and trying to find rare species while simultaneously trying to improve the skills and knowledge of our volunteers.

  

  Surveying saw-sedge (Cladium mariscus) leaves in a bog in Swansea for the rust fungus Puccinia cladii

  The Lost and Found Fungi project finished just after the first lockdown, and I spent a year working for a biotech startup (Bento Bioworks), who aim to make DNA analysis work affordable and available to everyone at home.

  And after that I managed to end up in Kew again!

• Current Job:

  Coordinator for the Darwin Tree of Life project work at Kew, working on fungi and plants.