Science Spin July 2010

Batwoman

By Sean Duke



Emma is one of those people that didn't simply 'fall into' a scientific career, as one of several, or multiple options considered. She was fascinated by the natural world around her from when she was a little girl, and, for her, there was only one career that mattered. She can't recall when she was seduced by science, but she clearly remembers that her father, who was fascinated by science himself, helped with the seduction process. Emma recalled a night that left an impression on her when she was about 11 or 12 years old.



"I couldn't sleep so went into my parents' room," Emma said. "My Dad was also awake. He had been reading a Times article about leptons, quarks and atoms, and started to tell me about these small molecules. We talked for about an hour about the wonders of the world until the rest of the house woke up. He told me I could be anything - a butterfly biologist in the Amazon, or a nuclear physicist at CERN. All I had to do was work hard at school and study what I loved, which, of course, was science. I think he was surprised when I did actually become a bat biologist working all over the world though."



SCHOOL



It's not a surprise to learn that Emma loved science at school, in particular physics and biology. She liked her teacher, and because she was interested, she didn't mind studying these subjects. She also had ability, and passion, two vital ingredients for latter success. But, perhaps more than anything, her success is based on her total single-mindedness.



"I did think about becoming a doctor, but I would have only done this to be able to study the science behind medicine. I always felt a little scared picking science as my career choice as I wondered if I would ever find a job. It is not quite a profession in the traditional sense. I think that studying science in school enabled me to realise that this was what I really wanted to do."



TRAINING



One of the downsides to pursuing a career in science is the length of time it takes to actually get a job as a full-time professional scientist. A lot is made of the length of time it takes to train medical doctors, but, arguably, for scientists, the process is even longer.



For example, doctors can graduate in five years, have no problem getting a job, and are on a good salary from day one. Scientists meanwhile, can spend four years doing an undergraduate degree, perhaps another three or four doing a PhD, and then maybe another two or three doing post-doctoral work. That's about 10 years of training. Even after all of that, academic jobs can be hard to come by, and there are no guarantees. Of course for someone like Emma, the training and the hard work are all certainly worth it.



"I feel lucky to have had the experiences and education that I have had. Before I got my first faculty position in UCD I had studied and been training as a scientist for over 12 years. I was reading about, learning about, and adding to mankind's understanding of how life works. I got to travel all over the world. I lived in Canada, the US, spent time in Malaysia, Brazil, Thailand, Africa, all the while training to be an independent scientist."



WORK



The long years of study finally paid off for Emma and she now holds a coveted position as a senior lecturer at UCD with her own research team. Her working day is somewhat different from when she was a post-graduate student, but it is still varied and interesting.



"Typically my day consists of lecturing, analyzing data with my students, interpreting data, writing up these analyses as scientific articles - thinking, reading, hypothesizing," said Emma. "When I can, I like to generate data by working in the lab, or going into the field to observe and catch the animals that we are studying. I used to do this a lot more as a graduate student and post-doc. I miss this aspect of my work. My students get to have all of the fun, most of the time.



For Emma the best thing about being a scientist is those 'eureka' moments when some solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear. "It is 3 in the morning, you are exhausted, you have been working on a project or an idea for two years," said Emma. "Suddenly, when analyzing a new piece of data, you finally understand. It is at that time that you know more than anyone else in the world. This makes all of the hard work worth it."



There are downsides to every job, of course, even a person's dream job. For Emma the less appealing part of her job is having to correct "endless amounts" of exams and having to collate all of the results. "This is part of my job as a lecturer. It is long and sometimes tedious, but I am very happy when it is over, and I see how my students have done."



BATS



The focus of Emma's work is bats, and primarily addressing the question of how bats arose and developed their unique adaptations - flight and echo-location. There is also a more local focus on the bat populations in Ireland. It is not known whether bats here are increasing or decreasing in number, not even if we have identified all Irish bat species. Emma's lab is developing new techniques to count bats, and to identify them into species.



Some skeptics might question the value of spending taxpayers' money on studying bats, and as Emma is supported by Science Foundation Ireland, she is supported by the Irish tax payer. So what do the general public get out of it?



"Bats regulate insects," said Emma. "If one species is to go extinct we have no idea what this will do to Ireland's natural landscape. All environments depend on the species that are present in them. To remove one may cause the entire ecosystem to crumble. Therefore we must carefully monitor these environments and species."



ADVICE



The advice Emma would give students considering pursuing a career in science is - do it. "Learn about the world, immerse yourself in things that fascinate you and study hard," said Emma. "If it is science that drives you then spend the time studying it. I would advise you to take the subjects that you love at college level, at least for the first degree. You want to get high grades in your degree then you can study anything at fourth level."



Emma firmly believes that science and technology can help drag Ireland out of the economic mire, but there is a word of warning too for the Government. "Yes, I do think that science is our main hope. The Government will have to stick to their guns and make science funding a priority so that we can get out of this mess. However, they must not curb scientific creativity by only funding projects directly related to industry. This has the potential to kill future spectacular scientific discoveries that drive our modern world."