Emily joined the University of Exeter in September 2019 as a Masters student, co-supervised by Dr Aimee Murray and Professor Angus Buckling. During her Masters, she researched the role of microplastics in the dissemination of potentially pathogenic or antibiotic resistant bacteria.
After graduating, she worked on a project with the University of Exeter’s Medical School, MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the Environment Agency, investigating antifungal resistance in the environment. Following this, she continued to research antimicrobial resistance in the environment as a research technician for Dr Aimee Murray at the University of Exeter, where she was working on Dr Murray’s ‘SELECT method’ (https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_822202_en.html) .
Emily has now started her PhD investigating microplastics as vectors for antimicrobial resistance in aquatic systems, under the supervision of Dr Aimee Murray and Professor Angus Buckling at the University of Exeter, and Professor Pennie Lindeque and Dr Matthew Cole at Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
In 2021, Emily joined the official youth engagement group of the G7 on the ‘climate and environment policy track’, ensuring that the environmental policy priorities of the youth (18-30) are heard and considered at the highest level of international decision making.
Emily is also the co-founder of Cornwall based conservation NGO, Beach Guardian. Beach Guardian aims to empower communities to tackle plastic waste, and addresses critical environmental issues at policy, industry, education, and individual levels. Since 2017, Beach Guardian has engaged with every primary & secondary school and college in Cornwall and worked with some of the world’s largest companies, to help them reduce their reliance on plastics, such as PepsiCo and Nissan. Through this work, Emily has been recognised by the British Prime Minister with a ‘Point of Light’ award and was awarded the highest accolade a young person can achieve for social action and humanitarian efforts: the Diana Award.
She attained her BSc in Marine Biology from the University of Plymouth in 2018 and completed her MSc in Conservation Science and Policy with Distinction from the University of Exeter in 2021.
She is also now working part time as a senior intern with Baroness Natalie Bennett (Green Party Peer in the House of Lords), the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics.