 I was interested in science from a very young age. I was always interested in the nature study classes at school and I convinced my mother that I shouldn't get a beehive when I was eight years old, so that was a pretty early start. And for a long time I thought I'd like to be an entomologist but it hasn't turned out that way, but I've been interested in science as long as I can remember. I work in an area called molecular genetics and in particular we work on the study of enzymes that metabolise drugs and so we look at the genetics of those enzymes and some people are deficient and some people have too much, so that affects the rate that they metabolise drugs and sometimes there are adverse reactions if you're deficient in particular drugs. I certainly like discovering something new. It's a very competitive process, scientific research, because they have lots of colleagues and collaborators in the country around the world. We also have competitors and they're all trying to discover new things and that's what makes it work so well that everybody's competing to be the first to discover something, so it's an exciting competition to be in. We're always on the lookout for new students because we bring new life to the laboratory and new perspectives and so we're always looking for new students and the type of student I'm looking for is somebody who likes doing experiments and is interested in the work, not just doing it as a means to getting a job later on. I think a person has got to be committed to scientific investigation. Some science is theoretical and you can do it with a pen and paper but in molecular biology and proteomics you have to be able to actually do things with your hands and do experiments and so that's always an important attribute in students.