Emilia Wojcik

"My personality types were 'coach', 'coordinator', and 'influencer'. At first, these don't seem to match my job - I am a scientist - but they actually involve skills like problem solving, being good at working with a range of people, organisation, team working and leadership. These are all highly relevant to being a scientist! Problem solving skills are essential to being a scientist. Every scientific invention or discovery, begins with someone in a lab thinking about how they can solve a certain problem, such as disease, climate change, or food security. This is how we obtained vaccines, antibiotics, crops resistant to drought, and many other useful scientific inventions. Everyday work as a scientist involves troubleshooting lab procedures, designing experiments, analysing data and drawing conclusions from it which all require good problem solving skills. Organisation is crucial as a scientist - experiments need to be planned to make sure there is enough time to do all of them and to plan what reagents and equipment will be needed. A scientist needs to think about how to fit in lab work, working on the computer to analyse data, presentations and meetings, and if you're a senior scientist, writing applications for funding for your lab. While science is often perceived as very individualistic, team working and leadership are sometimes necessary, particularly if you work on a large, collaborative project. You need to make sure that what you're doing fits in with what other people are doing and communicate about what you've discovered, because it might help someone else. You will need leadership skills if you plan on establishing your own research group, or move into senior scientist or management positions, with people reporting to you. "

"I'm a PhD student, and I work within a large research group at the University of Manchester. You might already know this, but a PhD is an advanced degree which allows you to work in certain jobs; PhDs are very common in science. In our group, we have about 12 PhD students, about 16 postdoctoral scientists (scientists who have already completed a PhD) and experimental officers, alongside lab technicians, and our principal investigator (the person who supervises and manages the whole group, and obtains funding).My research is focused on engineering proteins and microbes to produce sustainable and low-carbon fuels, which could one day be one of the things that will substitute petrol, which is highly polluting. In particular, I work on producing propane, a good fuel for some applications, such as cooking or transport. I enjoy many things about my job: thinking about how to develop my project, working in the lab, and being satisfied when an experiment has finally worked, and travelling to conferences. My favourite thing about being a scientist is probably how inclusive and open-minded other scientists are; I love the diverse and exciting environment of the lab and working with people from all over the world. As a PhD student in the UK, you are usually funded by the government or a research agency, and get a stipend which varies from £14000 to £20000 (usually tax free). "

"I had a few jobs before I did my PhD. During my undergraduate degree I worked for my university, contacting alumni to raise funds for scholarships and university societies. I also did a year in industry as part of my undergraduate degree. I moved to the US for a year to work for a fuels company, and I worked on developing sustainable biofuels for transport (ethanol in particular). This was great, because I also got to travel and see many amazing places in the US! As a PhD student, I have a part time job as a teaching assistant, where I teach undergraduates in the lab. During my undergraduate degree I became really interested in an area of science called synthetic biology, which is engineering organisms to give them new functions. There are many inspirational figures in this field. Christina Agapakis is one of my biggest inspirations, I particularly enjoyed a science communication project in which she used bacteria from the human body to make cheese - this was meant to inspire people to change their perceptions of bacteria that live on their bodies. She did say that this was 'cheese for thinking, not for eating'. Another inspirational person to me is Frances Arnold - her and her group invented a useful method of engineering proteins, and she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2018. And figures like Marie Curie - the Nobel Prize winning physicist and chemist - are endlessly inspiring, because they achieved so much in a world that was so much more hostile to women. Here are some links about Christina Agapakis and Frances Arnold: http://agapakis.comhttp://fhalab.caltech.edu "

"I've always enjoyed reading books and going to art museums, so this is what I do in my spare time. I love travelling and I try to enlarge my guidebook collection on a regular basis. I also do a lot of science outreach - usually experiment demonstrations at schools or science fairs. During my undergraduate degree I got involved in iGEM - an international synthetic biology competition. I participated and represented my university in 2015 - our project was creating a biological detector for tuberculosis in cows (believe it or not, this would be something that could save farmers millions of pounds). For the past two years I've been involved in supervising the Manchester team. Two years ago they made a sensor to detect contamination in cheese, and last year they made sustainable hair dyes. I really like iGEM and try to participate in some way every year - and high schools can do it too! Here are some links if you're interested: http://2015.igem.org/Team:Exeterhttps://2019.igem.org/Team:Manchester "

"In the morning I always spend some time checking my emails, but there are usually not too many. Then I work in the lab - running DNA and protein gels, doing biological assays, or using specialised equipment such as mass spectrometers. I usually continue this after lunch. It can be hard physical work sometimes, but there's always time for a tea break with my colleagues. On slower days when I have less lab work, I work on the computer to analyse my results, read scientific papers and write my thesis (the big piece of work you hand in at the end, and get examined on). Sometimes there is a meeting I have to go to to discuss my results and the whole project with my colleagues and supervisor. The overall aim of my project is to produce high levels of propane fuel from bacterial cells - everything I do contributes to this goal. "

"In my two last years of school I did the IB which is an alternative to A-levels. I did biology, chemistry and English at higher level, and maths, history and French at standard level. For a science career, you probably want to take two sciences and maths at A-level (although not all are necessary, depending on the university course you want to get into). After school I went to the University of Exeter to do a biological sciences course. I specialised more than I expected, and also did a year in industry, and ended up graduating with a degree in Molecular and Cellular biology. To get into a PhD programme, you will usually need a 2:1 or 1st in your undergraduate degree, plus experience of working in a lab. Masters degrees are becoming very common as well to get into a PhD programme. I also want to mention that a PhD is not absolutely necessary for a career in science - sometimes you can get jobs with just an undergraduate degree in science. But to work in senior positions in academia or industry a PhD is usually needed. Many people get an undergraduate degree, work for a few years, and then go back to university to do their PhD. "