My name is Ethan Drury and the title of my research is Citizen Science and Antibiotic Discovery.
What's the aim of your research?
Our aim is to basically discover new antibiotics and at the same time involve the public and engage the public in understanding the problem of antimicrobial resistance, hopefully leading to change in their behaviour.
What could your research mean in the real world?
So really it's the idea that we can reinvigorate this drug discovery pipeline in terms of discovering new antibiotics which is obviously a big motivation for all of us at the moment and also the idea that we could sort of show on a smaller scale that it is possible to get the public on board and get them sort of agreeing with the idea that we need to preserve current antimicrobials.
What fascinates you about this research area?
I love the integrated nature of it, especially the merge between microbiology and the Social Sciences, I think it's quite a novel thing and I love being able to pull on different things from each discipline and using them really to make something that hasn't been done.
What's been your favourite moment so far?
So really for me it was going to the forests and collecting the data and obviously when I say collecting I mean having the public collect the data for us and seeing how engaged they get with the project - I just find it absolutely amazing every time.
What do you love about research?
You never really know what's going to happen next and although that can be sometimes something that makes you want to pull your hair out at the same time it's something that really keeps me excited and interested in what I do and I don't think I'd change it for anything.