I obtained my BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, graduating in 2020. During my undergraduate degree, I pursued a variety of interests, ranging from cell and developmental biology to ecology and evolution. This piqued my interest in environmental microbiology, and I furthered this by embarking on a research project in northwestern Canada, using shotgun metagenomics to explore how permafrost thaw affects microbes in thermokarst lake sediments. Following this, I became interested in applying microbiology to solve global challenges, and to this end undertook an MSc by research at the University of Exeter in the Exeter Microbial Biofuels Group. I then decided to turn to the intersection of biotechnology and microbial physiology, ecology and evolution, through a PhD at UEA supervised by Professor Thomas Mock. I began my studies in October 2021, and my research aims to understand at the function of ice-binding protein diversity in the polar diatom F. cylindrus.