Nell Davies

How did you end up working in STEMM?

I have always loved Science in all forms. I was lucky enough when growing up to have parents who both had science degrees. This allowed them to provide me scientific answers to many of my childish questions. When I asked things like “Why are leaves green?” my parents would respond by telling me about the Chloroplasts etc. This eventually led to me developing a keen interest in trying to understand the world around me. When I got older and started school, I discovered that I also had a passion for mathematics. This eventually led to me studying physics as I saw physics as a way of using my passion for maths and numbers to describe the world around me. My school had never covered any programming skills and it wasn’t until my first year studying physics that really discovered programming. Having got my head around the fundamentals it wasn’t long before I found myself really enjoying the programming parts of my course. I then decided I wanted to develop my skills and applied to study a master’s degree in computer science.

Do you have an area of expertise / research?

Currently, I’m a PhD researcher with the Distributed Algorithms CDT, working on a project with my industry partner, Leonardo. When I was searching for a PhD position, I was keen to join a CDT. I wanted to be part of a cohort and to have the opportunity to learn from others’ expertise and to share experiences and results. I wanted to work on this project because I have a background in Physics and computer science. I had developed an interest in data science, in particular, how it could be used to solve real-world problems.

I chose to undertake a PhD in data science because I have a love of using numbers to describe and understand the world around me. I discovered programming during my Physics degree and data science seemed the logical choice to allow me to indulge all of my interests. I think of data science as finding patterns and trends that may shine a light on how something works or behaves, and it has always felt like the data was concealing hidden secrets

In the future I would like to help generations of women to feel that science is a place for them. I would like to support others in their journey into the world of science and engineering. 

Find out more about the Distributed Algorithms CDT here.