Name: Inez Demon
University attended: Leiden, The Netherlands
Degrees obtained: BSc Biology MSc Mathematical Biology
Age: 25 years

For my PhD I wanted to focus on the problems that wildlife causes in agricultural systems. When I read the proposal for this project, which is sponsored by the Department for International Development, I decided there and then that it was something I would like to do. I am looking at how different crop and management practices influence whitefly evolution.

Coming from South America where whitefly are a major problem, I will be able to make a real contribution and learn something at the same time.

Freedom

At first I still felt like a student, but with a very supportive supervisor who allows me to plan my own work, I now feel encouraged to arrange my own experiments and try new ideas – giving me more freedom in my research.

Recognition

You get more confident as you go along, and discover skills you didn’t think you had. I never thought I had the ability to think like a scientist, and even now I amaze myself with what I come up with.

It’s great when entymologists who have been doing it for years find your work interesting and worthwhile. The experiments I’ve been doing haven’t been looked at for whiteflies before, and I’ve had excellent feedback. I really feel I am contributing to something. It gives you more independence and it gets better all the time.

Time management

There is a strong focus on personal development here. I have been working on presentation skills, report writing and technical management. I’ve also attended conferences and travelled to Colombia on my own. That’s something I would never have done before – it would have been very easy for me to hide away behind my desk running simulations on the computer.

After your first year you have a transfer interview. I had to come up with set projects, objectives, aims, and times by which I would finish. With modelling you can go on forever if you don’t put a limit on it.

Great atmosphere

For the first eight months, I stayed in The Manor at Rothamsted. It was easy to fit in because there were quite a few PhD students from abroad and we were all dealing with the same situation. The whole atmosphere was really nice.

Postdoctorate

When I started here all I knew was how to work with equations. Now my knowledge is much broader and I would quite like to do a postdoc at BBSRC.

Now I’m starting to believe that I really am a scientist, not just a student. I’m much more confident, and that’s very much down to having the freedom to do things and really develop yourself. It’s something I am going to cherish and I am really happy that I came here.