Gillian Brunt (United Kingdom)
| Hello, my name is Gillian! I work at EMBL. |
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When I was at school I found all the science subjects interesting, but biology was always my favourite. I especially enjoyed animal physiology, so when I went to the University of Nottingham I chose to study zoology. During this university time I won a scholarship to spend a summer abroad. I went to Israel, and worked on a nature reserve in the Golan Heights monitoring a Griffon vulture population. This was a brilliant experience which I really enjoyed. By the time I finished my studies I knew that I wanted to see a bit more of the world.
I wanted to live in another country, learn another language and not just travel without getting to know people properly. I now work as a zebrafish caretaker at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.
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Zebrafish |
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There are many reasons why I really like working in science and being a member of the scientific community. There is a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere - no one wears suits or ties! There is also an incredibly mixed, international collection of people. I have worked not only with people from Germany, but also from Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Belarus, Bulgaria, India, Greece, Austria and Poland!
On a day to day basis I work independently. My job is to keep the fish healthy and well fed so that they lay eggs for scientists to study. Zebrafish are great for studying animal development. The eggs that zebrafish lay are transparent, so by just looking down a microscope you can see the fish embryo grow from one cell to a swimming fish - and all in just five days! That is very exciting. Although I work most of the time on my own I am also part of a team that are studying how the retina in the zebrafish eye develops. This can be a lot of fun, we have meetings that talk about people's experiments and we discuss the experiments of other scientists that work in this field too. I am also able to attend lectures and seminars, which can be very interesting. For example, I've had the opportunity to see Nobel prize winners talk about their work.
In my spare time I help out at a local school that gives biology lessons in English and I also go to German and pottery classes in the evenings.