About

I thought I would share a little bit more about how I’ve arrived at doing what I do as my route towards starting a PhD was somewhat unconventional.

After my Bachelors degree, I spent 5 years working in what I would loosely call ‘practical conservation’. First for a charity called The Conservation Volunteers in Scotland, leading groups of volunteers in a range of projects from Peatland restoration and woodland management, to constructing gardens in schools. Then for several years with a small eco-tourism, conservation and community development NGO, Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment, in North-Eastern Cambodia.

In Cambodia, I saw the challenges of implementing conservation programs in protected areas and was really motivated to move towards a career in conservation practice. This led to short periods of work with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Between 2018-2020, I undertook an Erasmus Mundus 2-year Masters program in Environmental Science Policy and Management. Starting in Budapest for before relocating to the island of Lesvos in Greece and then Manchester in the UK. Finally, I chose to write my thesis back in Budapest just in time for the start of the pandemic.

Freshly graduated I was fortunate enough find a PhD position in Zürich. What really drew me to my position was that I would be working as part of a research project with applied outcomes for environmental protection in Switzerland. Two years on and I can safely say that it was one of the best decisions I have made!