Megan Tresise

"In the quiz, I got the personality types: Influencer, Quality Controller and Trainer, which I believe are very close to the professional skills required as a PGR. I sometimes work with groups of people on lots of little projects, but also spend a lot of time working on my own for my own PhD project (Influencer). I have to pay attention to small details in the research I read and deliver, as key information might be missed or the results I produce might be slightly wrong (Influencer/Quality Controller). As a scientific researcher, it's important to produce high quality research so that others can learn from it and potentially add their own ideas and findings to (Quality Controller). I also often discuss my research with other PGRs, academic researchers and occasionally I communicate science through social media, e.g. Twitter, in a way that people of non-science backgrounds can understand (Trainer). In the next year of my PhD, I will hopefully be working with some farmers and asking for their opinions on my research towards net-zero farming; it is important to communicate effectively with them to avoid any confusion and this will help steer my research. These are all important skills that make a good scientist/researcher, but I also feel that other skills could be: patience (not every experiment is successful), good listener (sometimes it's more helpful to learn from a conversation than reading a scientific paper), time management (a decent diary or virtual calendar can help to organise your day-to-day tasks and projects). "

"I'm a researcher looking at how we can make farming more climate-friendly and meet government goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. My main job activities involve talking to lots of academics, students, farmers and stakeholders; finding and storing data; analysing data using coding and spatial software; creating some nice reports and graphs to help farmers and policymakers decide what to do to keep the carbon footprint of agriculture low! I love what I do, because I get to handle lots of important data and make reports of what I've done to help others make an informed decision. One of the best things about my research is that I get to work with farmers, researchers and policymakers; so I'm building connections with lots of new people. As a PhD researcher, a standard salary is about £15,000/year, which might not be as much as a non-research job, but it provides job security for at least 3 years and I get to share high impact findings with the scientific community!"

"When I was at school, I had lots of favourite subjects and was better at some things, e.g. languages, than others, e.g. biology and maths. However, I really enjoyed biology, even though I wasn't top of the class, and worked hard at it to get into university to study Zoology. This was the best decision for me as I knew I wanted to study animals, but wasn't sure what I wanted to learn more about at the time, such as animal behaviour, physiology, evolution, genetics etc. My Zoology course was broad and allowed me to find my interests in ecology. After I finished my undergraduate, I got a temporary job as a fieldwork assistant to a PhD student, which is where I spent lots of time on farms collecting soil, insect and plant data. This lead me to a Masters course in Biodiversity & Conservation, where I was able to complete 2 projects: one in farmland bird modelling in hedgerows and one study at Chester Zoo looking into visitor 'pro-conservation' behaviours, e.g. recycling. At this point, I was sure I wanted to carry on with a PhD, but didn't get any of my offers and worked as a receptionist for a few months. One day, my former supervisor emailed and asked whether I was still looking for a PhD and offered me a research position. I know that this is not everybody's route to a PhD, but the most important message from this is that you never know what is around the corner and you should work hard at what you're passionate about as it'll pay off one day."

"I enjoy walking around Leeds and up into the Yorkshire Dales, or sometimes I drive to the coast and walk there. I try and see friends and work colleagues as often as possible to keep me grounded, as PhD life can sometimes be difficult to balance with having fun, but it's a learning curve. I have also started to learn Spanish as I'm planning a big trip to Central and South America once I'm finished with my PhD, plus it gives my brain a workout!"

"I try and work Monday to Friday 9am-5pm, but this is completely personal preference and doing a PhD gives you more control over your work day. A typical day for me is to write out a to-do list first thing and reply to any emails I've received overnight. I then crack on with my to-do list and if I complete something that wasn't on the list, I always add it after to show myself that I've progressed more than expected today.Pretty much all of my work occurs at my computer, so I have a desk set up with an extra monitor, separate keyboard and mouse, and my laptop is raised. I use coding software to create nice graphs and tables, spatial software for maps and Microsoft Office packages for my documents, presentations and spreadsheets. My main project at the moment is my transfer report, which will allow me to continue my PhD next year and is a good sample of my work progress. A typical day working on this report can look like a few hours of writing, a few hours of creating maps of farming areas, soil types or climate, and doing some quick coding to add graphs and tables. "

"AS-Level: French (B)A-Levels: Geography (A), Psychology (B), Biology (B)BSc Zoology (2:1)MRes Biodiversity and Conservation (Merit)"