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Meet Matthew Shepherd - a microbiology graduate

Matthew, a microbiology student explains his experiences of a work placement and studying microbial ecology on a field trip to Iceland.

In this video you’ll meet Matthew, who studied microbiology at the University of Reading. Matthew explains how his experiences of a microbiology work placement and studying microbial ecology on a field trip to Iceland were particular highlights of his degree.

You may also like to read these blog posts written by students who joined this annual trip in 2016.

Matthew graduated from the University of Reading in June 2018 and is now undertaking a PhD in molecular microbiology at the University of Bath. He’s working on the rewired flagellum project supervised by Dr Tiffany Taylor.


We hope you enjoyed this Week, where you explored some of the major discoveries in microbiology and got the chance to perform your own microbiology experiment. You also learnt about a number of current techniques used in our working labs study microbes, as well as exploring more experimental microbiology techniques.

Join us in Week 3 where you’ll explore how microbes impact health, food and our environment.

Hear expert interviews from medical experts Dr Sheila Macintyre and Dr Simon Clarke, environmental expert Dr Renee Lee and food microbiology expert Dr Gemma Walton, and try out another home experiment where you can make your own yoghurt.

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Small and Mighty: Introduction to Microbiology

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