Profile
Emma Bennett
My CV
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Education:
Broadwater school, 1998-2003. Godalming College 2003-2005
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Qualifications:
Cardiff University, Biology BSC, 2005-2009
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Work History:
Many summer and part time jobs means that I have worked in a variety of places including a library, electronic manufacturing company, a major retailer and medical genetics research lab.
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Current Job:
PhD Student – so I’m still studing.
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My work is all about looking into how the nutrients plants contain are moved into the seeds when a plant dies or its leaves turn yellow and fall off. These nutrients could have come from the soil and have been taken up by the roots or formed in the leaves by a process called photosynthesis – this is where the energy from the sun is used to make sugars and oxygen. The goal is to understand this process of moving resources around the plant so it can be made even better and more of the plant nutrients can end up in the seeds. This way the improved seeds will hopefully be more nutritious if they are to be eaten or produce crop plants which have higher yields.
As a plant scientist I’m always growing things and the plant I work with most is a weed , so you can’t eat it, but we study this as it is a great model for other plants and lots of work has already been done on it. I do also get to work on a proper crop called oilseed rape though and if you’ve ever seen fields full of yellow flowers then that is probably this crop. -
My Typical Day:
Each day is unpredictable but it usually involves watering and looking after plants as well as running experiments in the lab.
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Working on many different projects means that I can keep switching between them which often make my days hectic but far more interesting. The day normally begins with some computer work, usually from the comfort of my own bed so I can stay in my pyjamas and eat breakfast whilst answering e-mails and planning what needs to be done, all before getting stuck into some exciting lab work. This lab work could be anything from using fancy machines to look at the oil content of seeds to simply counting the numbers of leaves a plant produces. At some point during the day I will always try to go and look at the plants I’m growing, water them and check that they are happy and still alive. I also try to spend some time reading articles which other scientists have published to keep up to date with what’s going on in my field of research and get ideas of where to go next with the project.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Buy equipment for a school so that they can record their plants growing and make time lapse videos.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Quirky, carefree, energetic
Were you ever in trouble at school?
No, I was fairly good at school but did manage to get away with a lot. The trick was to get a good reputation in the first few years and then the teachers never believed it was me misbehaving….
Who is your favourite singer or band?
This is always changing but at the moment I’m loving Mumford and Sons.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To become a wiser person, to help solve world hunger and to be able to fly (A superhero power would be excellent and flying everywhere would make things so much more interesting).
Tell us a joke.
Bronze and silver are sitting having a drink in a bar when Gold walks in to join them but silver shouts Au get out of here. (Sorry I’m terrible at jokes and sadly this is the only one I ever seem to remember).
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