Dr Sara ME Rassner
Aberystwyth University, IBERS
Environmental Science & Limnology
I love most things that involves water andI really like going to cool places.I also like figuring out how things workandwhy things are the way they are.I have always been fascinated by nature, so it was perhaps not that strange that I ended up studying freshwater and marine biologyat university.
Although I started out studying fish behaviour in lakes, I somehow ended upworking withmicrobes, like bacteria and viruses, on the surface of glaciers!
Even if my work has moved from fish, to glaciers and Arctic lakes, to flooded mines and back to glaciers, my main research interest has always been the same two questions: 1) how does the environment shape the interactions between different groups of organisms that live there? and 2) how do the interactions between groups of organisms change the environment they live in?
My current job as a postdoc (post-doctoral researcher)on the microbial ecology of glacier surfacesis part of a NERC*projectcalled MicroMeltthat we developed from some of the findings frommy PhDmore than 10 years ago.In MicroMelt, we are trying to trace the nutrients as they travel from the snow landing onthe glaciers, through the ice and water on top of the glacier and out into the streams and ultimately the sea. We are identifying the microbes present at different stages along this journey and figuring out their role in changing the composition of nutrients in the water as it flows down the glacier. We are including glaciers in the Arctic, Antarctic and the Alps in our study, so early this year, I got to go to the tip of Antarctica to collect samples. I spent most of my time in the lab, filtering lots andlots of water that my colleagues had collected, but in the evenings,I would stand in the canteen and watch the penguins playing on the beach and humpback whales feeding in the bay!
The best thing about being a research scientistin academiais that you get to follow your curiosity and figure out things that nobody has done yet. You have a lot of freedom in choosing how to tackle yourresearch questionand you get to solve problems, large and small, which can be very satisfying (it can also be very frustrating at times!). You also get to work with lots of amazing and enthusiastic people.Even if you’re not working on the same project, it is really helpful to have great people around you, especiallywhen things aren’t behaving and you’re struggling to make sense of your data.
One of the downsides to this kind of work is that you really have to be self-motivated and it can also be hard to constantly have to learn new stuff. To my mind, the main problem with being a research scientist in academia is that you are repeatedly moving from project to project and, since the competition for research grants is fierce, it can be very hard to keep working on one specific topic, let alone in one particular location!
I have been lucky enough to been able to stay at Aberystwyth University for most of my postdoc career and during that time I have had the chance towork with a lot of brilliant members of staff and students on several different projects. I think the most important advice I can give is to follow your interests, but also be interested in what you do. It will be a lot more enjoyable if you are enthusiastic about your work or studies.
* The Natural Environment Research Council(NERC) funds environmental science research in the UK using public money.