Emma

My name is Dr Emma Farquharson, and I have been studying science and following my curiosity for what feels like my whole life. In my undergraduate degree I studied Microbiology and Immunology - with a specific focus on Infectious Disease. After a few months working for an animal health diagnostic center, I went on to receive my Ph.D. from Cornell University, where my researched focused on Food and Water safety as I engineered bacteria-specific viruses known as "bacteriophages" to be able to grab on to and infect a wider range of bacteria. I would say that my pursuit of science has always been something my parents and family and friends have supported, not that I needed their permission. Although I was supported/no one got in my way - most people didn't really know how to engage with me about science - as they were mainly humanities people. Throughout my life, I've always been creative and art-inclined, but I mainly copied other people's drawings so I wouldn't say anyone considered that art could be a career direction for me - due in large part to my focus on growing my scientific knowledge. I think I also never took that seriously, because I didn't have fashion sense and I didn't understand color theory and I didn't think I was good at interior design. I was good at copying, but not creating unique things - I felt - and so this made me discredit my artisitc abilities or how I could harness them in my future.

It wasn't until I started my Ph.D. that I was introduced to the topic of scientific communication and graphic design (poster design). It was astounding how few scientists knew how to convey their research and findings to more than just other academics. I found it fun to learn about how people looked at and interpreted posters and images, and started to notice pieces of data visualization around me. It was a growing interest and notice towards these pieces of work that led me to take some courses on communication in science. Because I was in Graduate school until last year and then moved to England from the United States, I've not had much time to look around me and find inspirations...but one of my only sources of inspiration is National Geographic!

I would say there are two major worries in my head that feel like they're stopping me from starting on this journey. One is that, although I know enough Statistics to get by, I'm by no means an expert. I feel quite ill-equipped for interpreting Statistics, which makes me worry that I will be unable to spot hard-hitting information versus flimsy results - and will also not know how to emphasize the results that matter. The other factor that is holding me back right now is that I feel as though I do more copying of other people's clever ideas than I do finding my own style. This makes me feel uncreative and like a fake - if I'm taking partial credit for another person's ideas. I'm worried that I would just learn how to recreate their stuff - not make it my own.