Tania Robledo Retana

"Tania is studying for a Doctorate (PhD) in Biological Sciences, researching proteins that give people allergies.Tania is a practical, logical and impartial person. She feels that this helps in her job as research is not an easy thing to do – if it was, everything would have already been found out by now! She says it is important to believe in yourself and try all sorts of different options, which means being persistent. She is a good fit for the ‘Manager’ and ‘Developer’ types as she needs to be well organised to manage her work, and to be persistent and focused to develop her research."

"As a PhD student, Tania is carrying out scientific research. She is researching proteins that give people allergies in the hope of creating new medicines. She spends her time at work growing culture cells or carrying out expression and purification of proteins, as well as analysing data and reading papers related to her research. Tania likes to travel, and with her work she has had the opportunity to attend international meetings all over the world to discuss and present her research. She really enjoys what she does, being able to try new things constantly and knowing that her work could make someone's life better is really important to her. In the future it will be possible for Tania to get a Postdoc, or to start working in academia or in industry."

"Tania enjoyed studying science at secondary school as she found her teachers to be intelligent, interesting and kind people. They inspired her to study Biology at university, followed by a master's degree in Biological Sciences. In between her degrees she also worked as a technician, before starting her PhD. Research scientists can earn from £14,000 to £60,000 per year."

"Tania loves nature and being outdoors – she likes getting out to the park or to a market when the weather is good. She also enjoys visiting museums. In colder weather she likes reading, listening to music and watching films. Tania would love to be a mother one day and she still hasn’t decided if she would like to keep doing research in an academic or industry sector in the future."

"My typical day would start with a nice shower, I have breakfast and cook my lunch for the day. Then, get ready and go to the lab, I'm in the lab mos of the day, although, sometimes I have to go to conferences, to help to demonstrate in the lab practicals for undergraduates and around 6 I leave the lab to do other stuff, like Yoga, read a book, volunteering, among other stuff"

"Since I am Mexican, we don't have GSCEs. But I had scientific lectures in high school, did a Master degree in Biological sciences and work as a lab manager of one air sampling station in Mexico. "