Darja Dobermann

I began doing research very much by accident. Having always been adamant that "I would not be a scientist like my dad," I started working in the furthest field from his (he is a tropical agronomist), developmental psychology.

I worked on executive function (working memory, inhibition etc) development with preschoolers in Canada during my Bachelor's degree. I shifted my focus slightly by pulling in the international development angle during my Master's thesis.

Shortly after this I found myself with a gap year on my hands and spent time working in developmental nutrition with Dr. Jessica Fanzo. In those same summer months I also got my first experiences in a wet lab. After years of denying my fate I accepted that perhaps I was meant to be a research scientist in a field much more closely aligned to my dad than I ever anticipated.

Ultimately, this brought me to the PhD I'm working in now which, although in nutrition, utilises a cross section of nutritional, agricultural, entomological, biological and biochemical skills. My PhD aims to look at the potential benefit of insects in malnutrition and aquaculture. Throughout the PhD there is a strong emphasis on employing methods, skills and resources which can easily be accessed in the developing countries the research targets and relationships with researchers abroad is always paramount. I strongly believe the only way forward is together.

January 2017