Profile

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Min Yap

    • About Me:

      I’m Min, originally from Singapore but now living in Norwich. I study bacteria to understand how they adapt to survive on foods and/or make food unsafe for us. I love going on walks, runs, cooking and watching sports.

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      I’m from Singapore (a tiny island country/city/state in Southeast Asia), where there are no seasons and it’s warm and humid all year round. I’ve had the opportunity to live in Australia for a few years where I got my degree in Food Science. I love food and have always been interested in it (studying and eating it!). Before moving to the UK, I was in Ireland, studying bacterial communities in dairy products.

      Outside of science, I love travelling, walking/hiking, taking film photos, exploring new places, trying new food/recipes, watching plays, football and reading.

    • My pronouns are:

      she/her

    • My Work:

      I study bacteria in food and how they adapt to survive longer on the foods we eat or make us more ill.

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      There are different types of bacteria that can be present in food – good bacteria that are beneficial for health and bad bacteria that can make you sick. Both good and bad bacteria exist together along the food chain and my research hopes to understand where these bacteria come from, how they adapt to different environments and how they interact which each other in bacterial communities.

      I’m currently working on a project that looks at how different strains of the same bacteria spoil leafy greens.

    • My Typical Day:

      A typical day involves a short commute to work by bus to get to work at 9am. This is followed by a split between working on my laptop (usually doing some analysis or writing a paper) or running experiments in the lab. There’s also lunch time which is a good time to take a break with colleagues, where we usually do the daily nyt games, before going back to more research. Then at 5ish, I make my way home before doing it all again the next work day.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would use the money to create a model or interactive game to show that bacteria can come from many sources (humans, environment, food, water). This will help illustrate that everyone plays a part in food safety.

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      University College Cork (Ireland),
      Curtin University (Australia),
      Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore)

    • Qualifications:

      PhD (Science)
      BSc (Hons) Food Science
      Diploma in Food Science and Nutrition (Singapore)
      O levels (Singapore)

    • Work History:

      Laboratory Technician at a sequencing company
      Research Officer at a research institute
      Quality Assistant in a chocolate factory
      Clinical assistant at a GP

    • Current Job:

      Postdoctoral Research Scientist

    • Employer:

      Quadram Institute

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        determined, curious, calm

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I wanted to own a hotel when I was young, before I got into science!

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        No, just for being late once or twice

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

        Probably something related to food, maybe a recipe developer or someone who makes graphs/figures based on sports stats

        What's your favourite food?

        Hokkien Mee (a Singaporean fried noodle dish)

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

        1) Yearly trips back home. 2) unlimited funding so we can keep doing the research we love. 3) time with loved ones and friends

Questions answered by Min

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