Profile
Katie Wilshaw
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About Me:
I’m a PhD student studying chicken health and nutrition. I live with my husband and two children aged 11 and 13 in Nottingham. I love archery and practise with my two boys at the weekend. My other love is ducks and we keep 5 in our back garden.
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I’ve always loved animals and have always been interested in the natural world. At school, I never knew what I wanted to do for a career but decided I’d like to study wildlife at university, and I’d figure a job out later. My biggest challenge with getting into University was my dyslexia.
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My pronouns are:
She/Her
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My Work:
I study chickens, which I know sounds a little crazy. Chicken is one of the most-eaten meats globally, making them one of the most important domestic animals. So there are chicken doctors, and I’m training to be one!
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We feed chickens a mixture of wheat and soybean, but both of these crops can also be eaten by people instead. We want to find different feed ingredients to feed chickens that humans can’t or won’t eat. Some of the feed ingredients I’m looking at are yeasts left over from the bioethanol industry and insects (which have been fed human food waste).
I’m also exploring the use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance technology as a tool to check the chicken’s health.
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My Typical Day:
I don’t have a typical day. Sometimes I have to do a lot of reading scientific papers and writing, other times, when I’m running a dietary trial with chickens I’ll be caring for the chickens, or I can be testing samples in the laboratory or learning how to run an analytical machine. Today I spent the whole day in a meeting where I had to talk about what I’ve been doing, and I got to learn about what other PhD students have been up to. These meetings are a good way to exchange ideas and gain a new viewpoint on your research.
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What question are you currently trying to answer?:
I’m currently trying to see if a machine called an NMR can be used to show if a chicken is healthy. We use NMR to look for signs of human diseases and I want to know if we can use it to see if the chickens are healthy when feed a new diet.
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How do you form a new question?:
One of the things I love about science is whenever we try to answer one question, we usually end up discovering several more questions we never knew needed answering. Usually, a good place to start is to read scientific journals on a subject and see what questions other scientists have asked. Then you can start to see the holes in the knowledge.
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How will you know when you have answered your question?:
I’ll run my experiment and come to a conclusion. Then I’ll let other scientists look at my work and decide if what I’ve done is scientifically okay and my conclusions accurate. We call this peer review and its the way scientists ensure we are honest and have answered our questions correctly.
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Education:
I did my GCSE’s in 1999 at Djanolgly CTC in Nottingham. I got all A’s in my science subjects and a B in Math but failed my GCSE English. I went to the local college (Castle college), which where willing to accept me as an A’level student studying physics, chemistry and biology as long as I resat my GCSE English. I resat my GCSE English twice before I passed with a grade C. During this time, my A’level biology teacher realised I was quite dyslexic and fought for me to be assessed. This allowed me to get extra time in exams and some learning support which I’ve found really helpful.
After college, I went to Anglia Ruskin University and studied Animal behaviour and wildlife biology. I finished my undergraduate degree in 2005 and didn’t return to education until 2017. After spending 12 years working full-time, I decided I’d like to gain my master’s degree in Livestock management and studied part-time over 3 years. I completed this in 2020 and began applying for PhD programs. I started my current program in 2021 and will finish in 2025. I’ll be 42!!!
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Qualifications:
I have 10 GCSE’s grade C and above.
A-level biology, physics and chemistry.
AS level general studies
BSc (hons) Animal behaviour/wildlife biology
MSc (hons) livestock and wildlife management
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Work History:
During my time at university, I worked part-time for Homebase to support myself. After university, I worked for a year for a pharmaceutical company as an animal technician, then went to work in a secondary school as a science technician for 5 years. During this time I had my two children. After my second child has born I didn’t want to return to my science technician job so I went to work in an oil testing lab instead. I worked there for 3 years before me and my husband decided to return to Nottingham to be closer to family. When we moved back to Nottingham I got a job as a poultry research technician. This is where my interest in poultry began.
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Current Job:
I’m a full-time student studying for a PhD. My PhD is funded by a research council and they provide a wage called a stipend. Without the stipend, I wouldn’t be able to afford to study.
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Employer:
I’m doing my degree at Nottingham Trent University
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
tests chicken feed
What did you want to be after you left school?
Maybe a teacher?
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Yes, for fighting in primary school.
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Something involving science or wildlife
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Placebo (I'm a 90's child)
What's your favourite food?
anchovies
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
bigger garden so i could have more ducks would be nice.
Tell us a joke.
Why did the duck cross the road? he wasn’t chicken
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