Question: Why did you want to do this job?

Shanine Smith answered on 12 May 2023: last edited 12 May 2023 2:12 pm

Hi Tiana + Izzy

It took me a long time to decide to do this job to be honest!
I was a chef for 15 years after high school but I always kinda had a passion to do more but I never really knew what that was. I tried to get into the Royal navy as new career start but unfortunately I didnt pass the medical (I broke my back when I was young and although I am perfectly fine now, I didnt get in). Anyway, I decided to give University a try and studied Food science. Since then I have still been trying to find the right path. I have done a bit of work in aquaculture (farmed fish), I did research on measuring stress levels of fish. I have also done work in a type of science called the blue biotechnology sector (using the biodiversity of the marine environment to make products). Here i worked with microalgae to produce natural blue food colours and also designed photobioreactors to grow the algae. I guess you can say i am motivated to work in sustainble food solutions so that everyone around the world has access to safe and reliable food sources that dont hurt the planet. this is also why I am vegan. But to be honest, I finally chose the whisky industry because I value its importance to scotland and belive it will be a secure future for me, as well as a very intersting career! and I chose to do the phd because I wanted to be even better at science. theres always more to learn. no matter how good a scientist I become, there will always be something new learn.