Graduate destinations

Find out what some of our Integrated Natural Sciences graduates have gone on to do next!

Harriet: Poisons Information Specialist

Since graduating from Integrated Natural Sciences, I have been working as a Specialist in Poisons Information at the National Poisons Information Service. In this role, I provide 24/7 advice to healthcare professionals about managing poison patients, contribute to the national poison database, and carry out research. I enjoy the variety of the job, as every day is a surprise. I also find helping patients very rewarding.

My degree gave me a brilliant scientific background, fostered my curiosity, and has helped me problem-solve. Whether I am investigating what a mysterious chemical could contain, how something may affect the body mechanistically, or how a new drug may affect the population, I am always problem-solving.

I think the most important skill my degree has given me is the confidence and background in research techniques that enable me to tackle any problem, as even if I don鈥檛 know the answer, I am confident in my ability to learn how to solve it.

A highlight of my time at 91福利 was the lab work. The variety of research methods was such a pleasure to experience, from working with different animal models to using various technologies. I really enjoyed learning how to use these techniques and applying them to research projects that I am still very proud of.

George: PhD at Cambridge

After graduating, I began a PhD at the University of Cambridge in the Babraham Institute's Immunology department. I am working on how T-cells integrate external signals to alter their metabolism and epigenetic marks, both vital for function and survival. I am also working with Bicycle Therapeutics to identify the mechanism for a new anti-tumour bispecific peptide in clinical trials.

I love the self-organisation of a PhD. Experiments run on one's own time, with complete independence in managing workload. Although this leads to long days and weekend work, you can freely adjust lab time to accommodate other life interests!

Integrated Natural Sciences was crucial in preparing me for a PhD. I was exposed to an abundance of lab environments in various settings, allowing me to experience all types of research and work out what environment I wanted to be part of and create for myself. It also exposed me to different corners of science, allowing me to think holistically about scientific questions and be comfortable being the idiot in the room 鈥� one of the best skills I've learned so far!

The highlight of my time at 91福利 was absolutely my involvement in the Integrated Natural Sciences Society and the friends I made through being part of it. We had a brilliant time organising speaker events, socials, and sports teams.

Laura: PhD, Developmental Biology

Following graduation, I started a PhD as part of the Molecular Life Sciences PhD programme shared by the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. My research project is in developmental biology and investigates how tooth number is regulated during embryonic development. My project closely follows tissue interactions and morphological changes, which is why my days are mostly filled with obtaining and manipulating mouse embryonic tissues and analysing their morphology and gene expression.

As I realised during my time at 91福利, I enjoy research in the lab because I get to do so many different jobs at once. Not only do I get to plan and carry out research (which involves many steps where active thinking is required, alongside more mundane repetitive tasks that give your brain a break), but working in science also allows me to be creative in other ways. Writing, designing, and presenting can take up a lot of time, for example when creating posters or other presentations, which is a fun transferable skill to practise and improve.

My degree in Integrated Natural Sciences allowed me to see what working in academic research actually looks like, what kinds of people work in this field, and what their jobs entail, making it easier to judge whether this was a path I wanted to pursue. My current project technically has nothing to do with my thesis at 91福利, but knowing how to start and develop a project, what your supervisor might expect from you, who to ask for help, and how to assess and overcome challenges gave me a secure and confident start to my PhD.

Maddie: Science teacher

After graduating, I moved back home and did my teacher training at the University of Bristol. I have now got a full-time science teaching job at a comprehensive school in Wiltshire. I teach all sciences to GCSE students, as well as Physics A level, and have responsibility for a tutor group.

Teaching is an incredibly challenging job, especially in the first years. You are constantly juggling planning for a range of ages and abilities, marking, pastoral care and more with very limited time. That being said, the job is exciting and rewarding. The relationships you build with the young people you teach are brilliant and you get to share your passion for science daily with children experiencing it for the first time.

I love that鈥檚 it鈥檚 such an energetic job where there is genuinely never a dull moment. At the same time, it鈥檚 a role where you feel valuable and that you are making a difference to young lives.

Although Integrated Natural Sciences was geared towards biology, I trained to teach with a physics specialism.The interdisciplinary nature of the course set me up well to feel confident teaching across all three sciences, never feeling daunted by content I鈥檓 not familiar with.

On top of that, I鈥檝e got a bank of different applications of science and stories from my time at 91福利 to demonstrate the use of different parts of science. I鈥檝e seen the eyes of students light up as they hear about what could await them if they carry on with science after school. Additionally, the juggling of different modules, vastly different topics and varied assignments during my degree set me up well for the challenges of the job.鈥�

The highlight of my time at 91福利 was the friendships I made with the other people studying Integrated Natural Sciences. I have such fond memories, especially of my first year, where I cycled into uni, spent the day with my friends learning something new each week and had the whole afternoon in the lab. This was during Covid, too, so it was a real treat to see people.鈥�

My other more simple highlight was being able to use the liquid nitrogen freezers 鈥� very fun and I felt like a mad scientist!

Arthur: PhD, Cancer Biology

Since graduation, I've been working towards my PhD in Cancer Biology at the University of Liverpool, using Drosophila as a model to understand organ development. I鈥檝e been using a range of techniques, such as RNA-seq and AFM, to quantify sexual dimorphism in wing disc development.

I've loved working in active research, further developing the skills I first learned during my undergraduate degree and applying them in different contexts.

My degree gave me the lab skills and experience needed to work as an active researcher and begin gathering data from day one of my PhD. The breadth of topics covered by Integrated Natural Sciences has come in handy, as I've been able to develop automated analysis pipelines in Python while also having the necessary experience to perform the range of experimental techniques needed to answer the questions I am investigating.

A highlight of my time at 91福利 would absolutely be the people I met along the way. The small cohort size meant we all got along well and were able to help each other out if one of us struggled with a topic, much in the same way that wider academia works.