Michelle studied Biochemistry and Medical Cell Biology at Liverpool University and then a Masters degree in Applied Parasitology and Medical Entomology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. After that she worked on projects identifying Hepatitis C virus infections at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, an HPV epidemiology project at the Institute of Cancer Research and a malaria vaccine project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Finally, she started her PhD in the Genetic of Autoimmune disease at Imperial College in London. Michelle remained there for another 7 years as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate, carrying out further molecular biology-based research and lecturing to undergraduates and postgraduate students.
Michelle spent 5 years as a lecturer at the Isle of Man College, teaching environmental science, biology, research methods and applied science. She now runs Discover Diving and describes scuba diving as ‘one big applied science experience’. Michelle regularly carries out marine environment assessments (from under the water rather than the surface) for both the IoM Government and for private companies and she’s also a qualified cylinder test engineer.
She tutors in science subjects for GCSE and A level and her experiences at higher education level have left her passionate about improving the teaching of science subject. She loves a good hands on experiment!
