Meet the team: Dayna Perez
Introducing Dayna, student member of the DeNovocastrians iGEM team.
After coming from a small, rural primary school, Dayna was homeschooled with her twin sister for a year (year 7), before attending Warners Bay High School. Once they had graduated year 12, both girls went straight into uni, studying a Bachelor of Natural history Illustration together at the University of Newcastle.
Dayna has been drawing since she could hold a pencil and has a particular passion for native flora and fauna, making Natural History Illustration an easy choice. Australia has many beautiful species and, since becoming an undergraduate of Natural History Illustration, Dayna has been given the opportunity to see and draw native flora and fauna that she had never even glimpsed before in person.
“It blends together two of my favourite fields; art and science, and I’ve always believed in pursuing a career that involves a degree of enjoyment.” — Dayna Perez
As part of her course, Dayna is encouraged to work with external partners. So, when the opportunity to be part of the iGEM team popped up, she saw it as a great way to reach out and develop her skills in collaboration with people studying under different professional branches. Her role in the team involves working on the design aspects of the project, helping make the science understandable to the general public through images and aesthetics.
Dayna enjoys the simple interests of life; alongside the visual arts, she’s quite passionate about fictional literature — reading, writing, and the sort — and is currently in the process of editing her 360,000 word manuscript that she hopes to one day get published. Dayna also loves to travel and although she hasn’t left the country as of yet, she has seen her fair share of what Australia has to offer. When asked about her favourite spots she said, “I’ve ventured around Australia, experiencing wonderful natural sites; such as a tour through the Jenolan Caves, and White Cliffs opal mines, mining for crystals under the guidance of a geologist in Broken Hill, and a walk through the great Daintree Rainforest, up in northern QLD, all of which has helped to inspire my passion for the natural world.”
She is avid about all forms of wildlife, but has expressed that her favourite, by far, are the birds. Dayna is also a collector, she stated, “Since I was a child, I have also adopted the hobby of collecting realistic plush animals from famous toy brands, and I haven’t abandoned that hobby even after growing up.” She now has over 100 different animals — some of them quite unusual — in plush form, and is always looking for more.
