Fieldwork

TAYA FORDE: So my name’s Taya Forde. I’m a veterinarian from Canada, after which I did my PhD in veterinary medical sciences at the University of Calgary before moving here to Glasgow to start a post-doctoral fellowship studying anthrax in Tanzania. I started in biology with a general interest in the environment, and wildlife and biology, and thought that veterinary medicine might be an interesting route to get there. So I did a vet degree through the University of Montreal. It was a five year programme. And during my time there, I ended up getting involved in some epidemiology research projects.

So I think having a PhD in life sciences, or I guess in my case specifically, with a veterinary aspect to it, there are definitely a lot of other options in addition to working within academia. A number of my friends have gone into national government agencies, mostly having to do with disease surveillance. I have a friend working with the CDC now. She ends up travelling quite a lot, mostly to Africa. But she is coordinating disease surveillance, and was involved actually in the Ebola outbreak in tracking disease transmission.

So even though we’re coming from a vet background, I think it gives the PhD in epidemiology or in infectious disease ecology– I think you end up being able to work in a broader background than just with animal health. A lot of us end up having quite a bit of overlap in public health or even human health.