I have always wanted to pursue a career in science; however, it was not until studying BSc Biomedical Sciences at Bangor University that I discovered my passion for microbiology. The course covered a variety of biosciences and equipped me with hands on lab experience from the numerous practicals throughout the degree. In the final year of my degree, I completed my dissertation, which was a systematic literature review; ‘The effectiveness of the influenza vaccine for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”. This was my first experience of independent research and greatly contributed to my love of research. I graduated in 2020 with a 1st class BSc (Hons) degree; after a few challenging last months while adjusting to online learning due to the COVID pandemic.
Bangor was an amazing city to study in, everything within close proximity and amazing student life. I made so many amazing memories in the first few weeks of university making friends with people from my student halls and on my course.
The University has such a large variety of clubs and societies to join, and while I tried several, including football and the vegetarian and vegan society; St Johns ambulance society was the one I stuck with. If I could do it all again, I would attend more societies and make the most of what was on offer. St Johns society was a great way to interact with people from varying degrees while also learning lifesaving skills; I had a great time every time I attended.
After graduating I moved to Manchester during the pandemic and decided if I wanted to move forward in my career, I needed experience in a laboratory. I got a job at Libra Speciality Chemicals as a quality control laboratory technician. While I knew this wasn’t the specific field of science I wanted to study, I gained crucial experience such as adhering to standard operating procedures and chemical testing techniques, which I still use to this day. After a year of gaining industry experience I felt it was time to get back into education to further expand my skill set and so I started to apply to master’s degrees in microbiology.
From 2022-2023 I completed an MSc in Medical Microbiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine achieving a Distinction. The last 3 months of my MSc were spent undertaking an independent research project. The title of my project was “Evaluation of Novel Antimicrobial Compounds for the Treatment of Infections of the Respiratory Tract”. This work was completed at University College London Hospital in the Environmental Research Laboratory which is where I now work today. After completing my research project, my supervisor decided there was scope to expand the project and I was hired as at Research Microbiologist. Since then, I have been involved in multiple research projects including clinical outbreak investigations and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of a large collection of environmental Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. I have also had the opportunity to attend conferences both in the UK and abroad, in 2023 I attended the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
I look forward to what the future may bring within my career path, and I would like to continue to further my research experience with the possibility of completing a PhD. Bangor University opened a world of opportunities for me and will always be one of my favourite cities.
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