Students come to biology because they are
interested in life and the way things happen,
the way things work. Biological Sciences at
Victoria covers all of Biology and that sets
us apart from a number of other institutions
where different parts of biology are dealt
with in detail in different areas. This means
that you have an ability to take courses from
a whole range of subjects that includes cell
biology, biomedical sciences, ecology, biodiversity,
conservation, marine biology, so a whole swathe
of topics. If i were to characterise my field
as anything it would be ecology. I study the
bush. So everything from weta to trees, anything
that seems as though it has a story to tell.
Which again is fantastic because there is
two great places with lots of stories embedded
in them in the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary at
Otari-Wilton's bush. The depth of natural
history in New Zealand is absolutely amazing,
it's completely unparalleled. In terms of
the types of students that are attracted to
this type of work, they fall into a very particular
mode, they like being outdoors, they are very
curious, they work very hard. My passion for
diving started when I was doing my undergrad
degree. New Zealand has so many places to
offer that you can actually do exciting field
work, either in the sea, mountains or plants,
whatever you are interested in. The new marine
ecology lab is a really new facility and it's
exciting to work here because I have everything
that I need here so my dive sites are just
across the road and so I can just take my
gear and go diving and collect my samples
and I literally just cross the road, come
back, rinse my gear process my samples in
the lab, store them if I can't process them
in that moment and keep working in my office
so that I have everything that I need here.
