Profile
Katherine Whyte
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About Me:
I grew up in Edinburgh, and now live in a small fishing village in Fife (Scotland).🌊 I enjoy hiking, photography, and spending time with my family (and cat!).🐱
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In my free time, I like to get outdoors as much as I can and go for walks in different places.🌞 Sometimes I also try to find interesting wildlife and take photos of the animals, plants and landscapes I see.📸 On my holidays, I enjoy travelling around Scotland and exploring remote islands, beaches and forests.🌲 I also play the drums 🥁 and enjoy watching movies.🍿
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I work as a scientist exploring what happens to ocean wildlife when we build wind farms in the sea.🌊🐧🐬
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Offshore wind farms are built in the sea where many marine animals live. In my job, I work with biologists, statisticians, engineers, and policy-makers. We collect information on marine animals (like seals and seabirds) when new wind farms are built.🌊🐧🐬
My background is in biology, which means I am interested in figuring out how these animals react to wind turbines, and checking that the wind farms don’t harm the animal population. I’m also a statistician which means my job involves lots of numbers and data.📊
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My Typical Day:
On a typical day, I work mostly at my computer, either at home or in the office.💻 I usually have breakfast and then start around 8:30am. I’ll take a break in the middle of the day for lunch and a walk outside, and then I work until around 5pm.
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If I’m at home, I usually have a lot of meetings by video call. I work with people across the UK and sometimes abroad, so a video call can be a lot easier than travelling! If I’m in the office, I have in-person meetings. In meetings we talk about the science projects we are working on, and make plans for what we should do next.💬
When I’m not in meetings, I’m usually working on science research. This means I spend a lot of time working with data, making graphs, and trying to figure out how the data can be used to answer our questions.❓
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d like to build and make some new activities and resources about the science that I do in my job, that I could then take to science fairs and schools to share with young people.
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Education:
Portobello High School,
University of St Andrews
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Qualifications:
From school, I have 8 Standard Grades, 5 Highers, and 3 Advanced Highers (Biology, Chemistry, Maths). At university I studied Marine Biology, and also went back to university to study for a PhD.
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Work History:
When I was at university, I got extra work experience, including sailing around the west coast of Scotland looking for whales and dolphins, and working as a wildlife guide. After university, I got a job at National Museums Scotland. I then went back to university where I studied seals for my PhD.
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Current Job:
Environmental Statistician
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Employer:
Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS)
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
A vet 🐴
Who is your favourite singer or band?
The Killers, or Bastille 🎵
What's your favourite food?
Curry and pizza, but definitely not together! 🍛🍕
Tell us a joke.
What do wind turbines think of renewable energy? They're big fans. 🌬
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