An Interview – Jessica Godfrey

This week on ‘An Interview with WiseOceans’ we spoke with Jessica Godfrey from BIOS

Name: Jessica Godfrey

Role: Research Technician and Lab Operations Coordinator

Company: Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS)

Top Tip: Be confident in your abilities

1. What inspired you to pursue a career in marine conservation? 

Growing up in Bermuda I was surrounded by the ocean and its beauty. Throughout school I grew fascinated by its capabilities and how important it is to the health of our planet. The ocean not only allows life on earth to thrive, but it provides communities with economic opportunities. It is because of this that I wanted to learn more and go into research that helped fill in knowledge gaps in a hope to better understand the ocean around us.

2. What steps did you take or are you currently taking to achieve your career goals?

I received my Bachelors in Marine Biology from Newcastle University, where I learned about all the different research areas that fall under Marine Biology. It was here that I learned that I had a passion for Molecular Microbiology and it lead be to completing my Masters in Industrial and Commercial Biotechnology also from Newcastle University. During my summer vacations I was an Intern or took courses at BIOS to expand my knowledge and gain practical research skills that could help me in the future.

3. How did you obtain your current position? 

During one of my summers at BIOS I took the Marine Plankton Ecology course which was taught by Dr. Amy Maas and Dr. Leocadio Blanco-Bercial. The following summer I was able to intern in The Zooplankton Ecology Lab, with them. From there Dr. Leocadio became one of my supervisors for my Master’s dissertation. It was through these connections that I was able to land a full-time position at BIOS once I had graduated university. After a few years of working full-time between two labs; Zooplankton Ecology and Microbial Ecology, I was put forward by my supervisors to join the Lab Operations team as well, in which I help manage all communal equipment across the institution and develop and maintain health and safety protocols and assist visiting scientists with their needs.

4. Which part of your job do you enjoy the most?  

I enjoy being in the lab. I enjoy collecting data, performing experiments and optimizing protocols. I find it extremely satisfying when I can see first-hand an experiment working, or when I have been working on optimizing a protocol and I can see straight away that it is more efficient. Data analysis is also extremely satisfying, getting to see the results of your hard work however I much more enjoy working with my hands.

5. Are there aspects of your position which make you feel that you are really ‘making a difference’? 

I work mainly on time-series work which means I don’t often see the results of my work immediately. Seeing other scientists from different disciplines use my data is really encouraging because I get to see just how important it is and I can see the sheer scale of the work.

Assisting in mentoring students in the lab is also extremely satisfying, I enjoy being able to provide lab experience and teaching them things that they wouldn’t get at school that may shape their career paths.

6. What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were starting out?

I have a moto in my lab, “don’t take science personally”. In the beginning of my time as a research technician, if a protocol or experiment didn’t work, I would blame myself, I would often complain to my colleagues that “this protocol must hate me”. However, I have now come to realize that sometimes protocols don’t work and it has nothing to do with you as a scientist and you just need to try again.

7. Are there any skills you never thought you would need but did?

General handy-man skills. Maintaining and fixing equipment is a crucial part to my role. I often find myself taking apart equipment to find out what is wrong, identifying the problem, and then having to put it back together again. Also, being in Bermuda where access to equipment is much more limited, I often find myself building or adapting equipment that we need; I have built filtration rigs, incubation chambers, plankton sieves, etc. Being creative and thinking outside the box is very important in this field.

8. What advice would you give to budding marine conservationists?  

Be confident in your abilities, ask questions if you don’t know and gain as much experience as you can. When I first started as an intern I thought I wanted to work in Coral Reef Ecology, however after interning in different labs, all conducting very different research I realized that I had a passion for Microbiology and Zooplankton Ecology. If I hadn’t accepted different opportunities, I would not be where I am in my career now. Taking internships to gain lab experiments is also crucial in my opinion, taking what you have learned in school and applying it to real lab work is essential to growing as a young scientist.

9. What is your favourite marine creature and why?

Mycoplankton (marine fungi) are probably one of my favourite marine creatures. These organisms are relatively understudied, but what we do know about them is fascinating. They are able to adapt their morphologies to the environment around them, and they have expansive biotechnological applications from pharmaceuticals to wastewater treatment.

10. What is your most unforgettable moment in the sea?

I have been lucky enough to participate on a research cruise during humpback whale migration season in Bermuda. Being out on the back deck, taking water samples from the CTD Rosette and looking out to the ocean and seeing whales breaching is a memory I won’t forget.