Profile

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Ben Turnbull

    • About Me:

      I’m a research assistant and teaching assistant who loves The MCU, prowrestling, and hard rock/heavy metal.

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      I’m particularly interested in science and nature, in all forms. My experience is with living things: cells and molecules, then bird behaviour, and now patterns of elder care. I’ve taught in multiple university departments and on summer schools across the world.

       

      Outside of academic stuff, I’m very pro-silliness. Which is why I love prowrestling and comedy-dramas so much! My hobbies including playing/writing music, reading, and I’ve recently started running! (Waiting for the latter to get fun though hehe).

       

      Soon I will be starting to train as a high school Biology teacher 🙂

    • My pronouns are:

      He/They

    • My Work:

      For my PhD, I explored how different early-life experiences set up individuals to be different as adults.

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      Across animals (humans included), we know that difficult experiences in early life can end up with problems in adulthood. Including behaviour, learning, and physiology. I created different early life experiences for songbirds and then measured how well they learn a variety of things once they were adults. The idea was to see if all types of learning were affected by a stressful upbringing, or just certain types. Results were inconclusive, as science often is!

    • My Typical Day:

      I don’t have a typical day right now, as I am only a part-time research assistant. So most days I spend a little bit of time on important things (e.g. marking, job searching, putting together information in tables) and then personal things (gaming, running, reading).

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would either:

      Set up a lab experience for youth. I would design a few simple “taster” labs, akin to what is done in first year undergraduate, and invite local students to take part.

      OR

      I would help fund ‘Bright Club’ events. Bright Club is essentially “academic stand up”. Performers get 8mins to talk about their academic experience in a witty and engaging way. It’s open to everyone.

    CV

    • Education:

      St Birinus School for Boys (11-16) and Didcot Sixth Form (16-19).

      Didcot is a small town in Oxfordshire.

    • Qualifications:

      GCSEs (when I was 16 years old):

      Biology, Chemistry, Maths, English Literature, English Language, ICT: B

      Physics, Geography: C

      Spanish, Tech: D

      Religious Studies: E

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      A Levels (when I was 19 years old):

      Biology, Chemistry, Maths: B

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      Undergraduate Masters (When I was 23 years old)

      Human Biology: 2.1

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      MPhil (When I was 25 years old)

      Psychology

    • Work History:

      My first job was a waiter in a fancy hotel when I was 16, then again in a family pub-restaurant when I was 17.

      I then worked for Blockbuster video (yes, I’m that old) 18-20 years old.

      When I was 24 I was a housekeeper for a while, then 24-29 years I worked at Dominos Pizza.

      From 29-33 I worked in Costa Coffee, then 33-34 in a Barnardo’s charity shop.

      Otherwise, I’ve spent 4 summers as a teacher for a Summer School in St Andrews, Boston, and Cambridge.

    • Current Job:

      Currently, I’m a teaching assistant in Biology and a research assistant in Geography.

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        High School Science Teacher

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Once, I was sent out of class for waving at the teacher.

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        In an ideal world, I'd been split between university lecturing, public engagement activities, and guest high school teaching. With a dash of research where possible.

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Metallica

        What's your favourite food?

        Pizza

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        1) That the self discipline I'm currently building keeps going; 2) That I'll own my own home; 3) That I get lots more tattoos, hopefully of dinosaurs.

        Tell us a joke.

        Why did the Ottoman's kick Saul out of their empire's capital? Because they can't-stand-to-know-Paul (Constantinople...)

        How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Curious, Resilient, Sympathetic

Questions answered by Ben

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