Profile
Verity Nye
My CV
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Education:
My local grammar school, a long time ago.
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Qualifications:
King’s College London and the University of Southampton.
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Work History:
I’ve done many jobs but my main chunks of employment have been as an underwater photographer, a dive instructor and more recently as a benthic ecologist.
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Current Job:
PhD student.
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Read more
I go on research cruises with other scientists to find undiscovered hot springs (hydrothermal vents) in the deep sea and collect samples of the animals that we find living there. These animals come back to the lab with me where I figure out what species they are. Sometimes we find new species and I get to describe and name them. I also study the biology of the vent animals, such as how they reproduce and disperse, and find out where related species have been found. All of this helps us to understand their patterns of life in the oceans and the factors that shape those patterns.
You can read more about my work and what we do at sea here ttp://www.thesearethevoyages.net/ and watch a video about our last research cruise by clicking here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsPCGw6OHjQ.
Last year we discovered the world’s deepest hydrothermal vents at the Mid-Cayman Trough, Caribbean. Here’s a picture of one of the vents we found. It is nearly 5 km beneath the sea surface.
You can read more about hydrothermal vents here: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/chess/education/edu_htv.php. -
My Typical Day:
There are no ‘typical’ days.
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Read more
It depends whether I’m at sea, which can mean working days or nights, or on land. On land I’m usually in the lab working on the animals we’ve collected at sea, reading papers and books, and writing up my work in the office that I share with five other PhD students. I also meet with my supervisor regularly and deal with emails at the beginning and end of each day. Sometimes I go and visit researchers working at different institutions to use a piece of equipment, learn new techniques and to talk about my work. Every day is different and I love that there is so much variety in what I do. Recently I had to dress up as a deep-sea starfish for an event at the Natural History Museum, London:
Here’s a picture of where I work: (Copyright: NOCS) -
What I'd do with the prize money:
Create kits for schools on deep-sea hydrothermal vents and the animals that live in these environments.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Independent, curious, adventurous.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Nothing that counts.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I don’t have one.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I’d love to be able to have a dog (or dogs), I want to keep having the courage to live my dreams and one day I’d like to be somewhere I can call ‘home’.
Tell us a joke.
Oh no, I’m rubbish, I can’t remember jokes.
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