Graduates of the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences go on to do amazing things.
Raphaella Jackson graduated from our MSc Bioinformatics programme in 2018 and is now undertaking a fully funded PhD at Queen Mary, Investigating the genomic basis of host-symbiont dependency in ants in collaboration with Dr. Lee Henry. Specifically, she is looking at a recently discovered bacteria needed for ant’s digestion and the genetics underpinning their reliance on these.
Here, she shares her experience of studying at the School and her reasons for staying in academia.
“It made a lot of sense to combine my love of genetics with my skills in computer science which is why I chose to study bioinformatics. I chose to study at Queen Mary as one of the things that struck me as I was looking at job opportunities in my field, was that the skills employers were listing as required or desired were exactly the same as what Queen Mary was teaching on the course. I think the marketable skills I learnt are extremely useful.
The second reason I chose to study at Queen Mary was when I visited the campus and met the Head of Bioinformatics, Conrad Bessant. I was really impressed by how I was treated with noticeable respect and as someone who was taken seriously as a scientist. It made me feel like Queen Mary was the ideal place to go because if I was treated like a serious scientist, then I reasoned I would be educated like one as well. My experience has more than demonstrated this to be the case.
When I was thinking about my next steps, I knew there are tons of well paid jobs in computer sciences and programming around the world, but decided I wanted to stay in academia. There are two reasons for this. The first is that when I started my Master’s degree I found that I felt really comfortable in this environment and the people I work with are my kind of people. Finding a community of people I understood and who felt like me, gave me a meaningful feeling of belonging. Secondly, I love my work. There is so much more to be learned from the biological systems I am working with and I would be loath to leave it behind.”