Profile

I am a French girl from the Alps (the mountains between France, Switzerland and Italy). I moved 2 years ago to do my PhD in Devon – obviously not for the sunshine and the high mountains. However I have found the life overhere highly enjoyable.

I love travelling and living abroad, it always asks lot of adaptation skills and that how I can surprise myself. I also do a lot of trekking and climbing when I can. A little bit of a scuba diver everytime I have the opportunity.

Over my PhD I have been studying agricultural managements and their effects on soil life and soil ecosystems.

Because to me microbes sounded a bit boring (no legs, no antenna, nothing you can see without molecular tools) I preferred to focus on bigger things. There is an amazing world beneath our feet and all this life is taking over on a lot of very important process.

They help nutrients cycling which is a way of helping plants growing and producing food (such as cereals, vegetables and so on).

How as human being we manage the soil is of extreme importance for all this life and all the help they provide.

A typical day at work starts with a good coffee. I will drink it while reading my emails or chatting with other students. Then serious things start. It can be processing soils for chemical analyses or looking at soil invertebrates under the microscope. I also have to arrange meetings with my supervisor from time to time. There is a big part of my work done on the computer too: reading, analysing, writing.