Question: What did you study in university and what does your job entail?

Jenny Shepperson answered on 14 Jun 2018:

I studied Ecology at Cardiff University when I left school – Ecology is studying animals and their interactions with the environment – I was interested in conservation, because I liked scuba diving and being outdoors!
I then went to work at a marine conservation organisation in Greece, where I realised I was interested in thinking about ways that we can balance the different ways people want to use our natural environment – for example, some people think fish shouldn’t be killed and that we should protect all living things, but others think we should be able to catch and eat fish. It can be a challenge reaching a compromise – catching enough fish to eat and make enough money for fishermen, but not damaging the marine environment too much. I was really interested in this problem, so I studied for a PhD in this, creating a computer program to predict where fishermen would go fishing! Now, I work for the Marine Stewardship Council, developing a computer program to help understand which fish are a more environmentally friendly choice. I mainly work at a computer all day, looking at lots and lots of data!