Meet the team: Ava Gibson
Student member & “glorified lackey”
Introduction
Hi, my name is Ava, I’m 20 years old completing a Bachelor of Biotechnology at the University of Newcastle! I’ve lived my whole life in Newcastle and went straight into university as soon as I could, even if it meant the hell of online classes.
Why did you join the team?
I was looking for a way to not just get a practical understanding about what I was learning in class but to explore the humongous range of biology that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on. In a way it gave an amazing opportunity to immerse myself into what I would be like to pursue in my future career.
! Microbes !
What’s your role in the team?
You could say that I’m the glorified lackey of wet work in the labs, getting to help with the finicky hands-on research and experiments.
What inspires you?
Even though this might be the expected sob story, I’ve always wanted to be a “scientist”. As a child I don’t think I really knew what that entailed, but I loved the idea of being in a lab with a white coat and poking and prodding at a questionable sample. Being a very curious person, I had to know how something worked, and why? For me, science is a gold mine for that.
What have you accomplished with the team so far?
Going into joining this team I had literally no lab experiences whatsoever, starting my degree whilst covid was raging its war I never had any opportunities to. By saying I’ve learnt so much is an understatement, I’ve gotten to do some of the coolest lab work, help develop and understand BTEX degrading organisms utilizing genetically modified E. coli and how it can be used to aid in bio-remediation. A very rewarding experience.
What do you do outside of this?
In my scarce spare time between full time uni and working as a Barista at ungodly hours of the morning, I love to do anything creative. Painting, charcoal, drawing, model making as well as reading (mostly ancient history, fiction and philosophy) as much as possible. Even though I’m a little out of practice I was a dancer for 16 years and love to dance when given the opportunity even if it’s alone in my room hehehe.
