Ana Morais Natálio

Hi there. I'm Dr. Ana Morais Natálio. I'm currently based at Harper Adams University in Shropshire, UK. I'm a soil scientist and my role title is Principal Postdoctoral Research Associate.

I suppose I don't spend most of my time doing one specific thing.

I can be in the field or glasshouse looking at experiments. I can be collecting samples for analysis. I can be processing those samples in the shed or in the lab. I can be analysing those samples using a variety of techniques and instrumentation, so different machines to quantify the biology and the chemistry and the physical properties of that sample.

I also spend a fair amount of time analysing data to look for patterns and how things are responding to things like treatments. I write reports and manuscripts. Although my role is research-focused, I can also do a bit of teaching too at the university.

So I don't really have a typical day or an activity where I spend most of my time.

So my collaborators can be based at the same university as me. And these can be lecturers, readers, professors, technical staff from the labs, the farm, grounds and estates. They can be students, they can be PhD researchers.

They can also come from industry, like the farming industry, for example. They can be from research centres, other universities, governmental departments, and non-governmental organisations.

The beauty of it all is that we all come together with a common interest and will to solve a particular problem.

I'm really bad at picking one best thing.

So for me it's to get paid to be curious. Being a scientist allows me to learn new things all the time.

Not knowing something yet is the whole point. I can make small contributions to something bigger and shape progress.

It also allows me to be wrong or to fail. And the data that does that, so the collection of numbers that does that, helps me improve research questions and also how I go about answering them. And I get to pass on my knowledge too.

So there aren't many fields which give me all of this.

The hardest part is the uncertainty of employment and the reliance on super competitive research grants. It's difficult to just pick just the one.

So I found my way into this job as an increment of steps, sometimes tiny ones, other times some which felt huge.

I always have been curious and keen to know the why. I never grew out of my why phase, I suppose.

So growing up, I didn't know jobs like this existed, but I always knew that I wanted to have a job that I enjoyed and I was prepared to put the effort in to get there.

Even my interest in soil didn't come as a moment of enlightenment, but as a collection of like small puzzle pieces gathered from here and there. A big chunk of my family is still linked to agriculture, and so I knew that soil can vary, and as such it can grow certain plants really well or really badly.

It was only during my bachelor's degree, so at the university level, that my keen interest in soil started to emerge. And this happened during my final year project when I was able to pick my topic.

And I decided to join two interests of mine, which are the soil invertebrates and the soil environment. When I finished my degree, I still didn't know that being a research scientist was a possibility for me, but I wanted to tackle more so I remained in school for a good while longer to do a master's degree and a PhD.

So I grew up in Portugal until I was 19 when then I left to the UK. So my GCSEs and A-level equivalents were in Portugal.

The education system wasn't easy because I struggled, and still do, to put a good amount of effort to topics out of my interest realm. And I suppose that is part of being autistic.

But I knew that education was a way of getting to do the things which grab my interest. So I learned to focus on getting good sort of grades in the topics I enjoyed and doing just enough to progress to the next level on everything else.

But when I first picked my A-levels, I decided to go for a sports-based program. I quickly realised that I didn't want to be an athlete or to be surrounded by sports all the time. So I changed to a different program and I went to do a natural sciences program, which I mostly enjoyed.

I discovered that I couldn't pursue further studies during my A-levels. And that's when I came over to the UK to work in factories. And I thought that that would be me done by then. For example, going from working factories to restaurants, cafes, to warehouses, post rooms, building sites.

I was very fortunate to live in London at the time and having Birkbeck College nearby. And it permitted me to do an undergraduate study on a part-time basis in the evening, which could be done alongside family and work commitments. So from then I obtained my 2:1 bachelor's degree in biological sciences.

I then took a year off studies to rest my brain and think of next steps. I found out about a master's degree in Shropshire, where I am today, studying entomology, which entomology is the study of insects.

And I thought it was perfect because I would be learning about invertebrates, which I love. and so easier to put the effort in. And I would be getting a qualification outside the norm. So you don't see many people with this type of qualification, which would hopefully make me stand out and help me change career paths.

It's okay to go at your own pace.