Employee profiles

Silvana

Benthic Ecologist, Environmental Resource Management

I work on R&D projects to develop applied science. Cefas provides a wide variety of opportunities to carry out high-quality science, there is a good mixture of interdisciplinary teams that allows you to work with colleagues of different backgrounds, expertise and 'state of the 'art -technology'. Part of my duties are to provide authoritative scientific advice to Defra, other government departments, industry and its consultants on matters relating to human impacts on the marine environment, on activites such as dredged material disposal, constructions (including off-shore windfarms) and aggregate extraction areas.

I have always been very impressed by Cefas's family-friendly policies, opportunities for professional development and multicultural environment, as well as colleagues who really care about you - it's not hard to see why I continue working for Cefas.

My day can be quite varied but usually starts around 8:30-9:00 when I read my emails, deal with other requests, conduct data analysis and write reports or articles. Additionally, I do advisory work and, depending on the tasks for the day, I attend meetings. I'm enjoying an interesting career here, and for me a highlight has been winning a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship which has enabled me to visit worldwide centres of excellence to develop links related to the Sediment Profile Camera (SPI) to develop applied science.

If someone said they were thinking of joining Cefas, I'd certainly encourage them to do so. Professionally I would advise them to identfy an area of interest and work hard to put their own mark on it in order to reach a successful development of the area. In particular, I'd tell them to always keep external collaboration opportunities open, as this helps you to network, and it is valuable when preparing tender documents and writing scientific papers to develop your career.