Biological Sciences

Katherine Davies

I came to the University of Portsmouth knowing I wanted to study forensics, but wanted to keep my career options open should I want to work outside forensics at some point; hence why I chose to accompany the forensics with biochemistry.

The first two years of the course covered a huge variety of topics in straight biology and biological chemistry, providing a solid scientific foundation for the third year, when the most of the forensic applications are studied in depth. The third-year honours project was the most enjoyable part of the degree, as it gave me a chance to study what I was interested in, with a sense of independence in research and direction of the work. My work was presented at an international conference and is hopefully being published in the near future.

After graduating with a 1st, I wanted to carry on researching in the area of my third year project and was lucky enough to be offered a PhD in the School of Biological Sciences, here at the University. My PhD involves developing new methods using the pupal stage of the fly lifecycle to help determine time since death. From this I aim to remain in academia; continuing to research and lecturing.