Ambassador: Harriet Gliddon
- Current role:
- PhD student
- Institution:
- Imperial College London
- Discipline:
- Life sciences and health
Biography
I am in my first year of a 4 year MRC-funded PhD Studentship at Imperial College London and am currently studying for an MRes in Biomedical Research. I currently work at the Tuberculosis Research Unit at St Mary's Hospital, studying the host-pathogen interactions during tuberculosis infection using mycobacterial mutagenesis. I also tutor on the Global Health BSc at Imperial.
Describe the public engagement work you have done?
During my undergraduate degree at Imperial, I was a member of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition Team. We won the Human Practices Award after organising a series of interactive Synthetic Biology School Workshops around London. These were designed so that the students could get a feel for how creative science can be and how much fun it is to be a scientist!
I judge the annual Imperial College Schools Science Debating Competition, which is aimed at encouraging school students to pursue further science education. I also tutor GCSE science and maths students and helped out at The Culture Capital Exchange (TCCE) 'Rules of Engagement' lecture series in 2012.
What motivated you to engage with the public?
I feel that researchers have a responsibility to engage with the public, and that we can also learn a lot in doing so. Through my experiences of organising the Synthetic Biology School Workshops and learning about the ways a variety of other organisations have attempted to engage the public, I feel I could contribute my own ideas and opinions to this important debate. There is a certain degree of misrepresentation of science in the media, and I hope to play a part in putting the record straight. I also want to encourage more young people to consider a career in science.
