Profile
Annabelle Somers
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About Me:
I live with my partner in Kent. During the day I’m a PhD student, researching how we can make our food better 🍝. In my free time I love being outside 🏞️, baking tasty cakes 🍰, and doing anything arty or crafty 👩🎨. I am getting married in September 👰, and can’t wait!
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My pronouns are:
She/her
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My Work:
I am researching how to help people eat more of the foods that keep us healthy 🥗. This includes learning how to grow food so it contains lots of healthy vitamins and minerals, but also looking at what happens to our food when we cook it. I am particularly interested in parsnips! 🥕
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Read more
I am particularly interested in a vitamin called folate, or vitamin B9, which is really important for keeping your DNA (the instructions for your body) working properly. Parsnips have lots of this vitamin, so could be a great source if we ate more of them! At the moment, I am looking at the healthiness of school meals, and whether we can make them healthier without making them taste gross or be more expensive.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up and wait for my partner to bring me a cup of tea in bed (I’m very lucky!). I have some breakfast, then walk through the orchards into the office. Usually, I will work at my desk for an hour or so, answering emails and writing up my experiments. The rest of the day I will spend working on my experiments, either in the lab 👩🔬 or at my computer. I go home when I have finished what I planned for the day, or at 5pm, whatever is sooner!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
If I got the prize money, I would like to use it to make some games/displays that help children and their parents understand how important the food they eat is for their health and wellbeing. I’d like to make a game where you could choose different foods, and it would give you a score of how healthy your day of eating has been!
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Education:
I grew up abroad – my parents moved to South Africa when I was 8, and then to Kenya in West Africa when I was 13, so I went to lots of different schools! When I was a teenager I got a big scholarship to go to Bryanston School in Blandford, which is very fancy and I feel so lucky to have experienced that. I did my Undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and was part of Girton College during my time there. I now work out of the University of Southampton, where I am doing my PhD.
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Qualifications:
iGSCES – I think I got 6a*s, 4as and a b
As Levels – I have an A in AS level physics and AS level maths
A levels – 2a*s (biology, chemistry), an a (maths) and a b (English literature)
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
I wasn't sure!
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Sometimes - I have an identical twin and we were always causing mischief!
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I love my job, but if I had to do something different I would be an artist
Who is your favourite singer or band?
ABBA! 💃
What's your favourite food?
...I think I have to say parsnips?
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To be more confident in myself, to have a magic house that cleaned and tidied itself, and to have a house somewhere warm to hibernate in the grim English winter.
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