Welcome to our new Alumni Spotlight series, where we introduce you to members of our alumni community and the wonderful things they are doing. Hear from Cass Baumberg, who studied the MBiol Biology at Oxford.
During my Integrated Masters at Oxford in 2023, I used the change in work-life balance to start job hunting. After the quick turnaround deadlines and term times of undergraduate life, my Masters year gave me an opportunity to take a longer-term approach to both my research project (tumour-causing virus in chickens!) and my career.
I started tending towards a laboratory-based job such as a research assistant, thinking I could work for a year and then apply to PhDs. But then a Masters Apprenticeship opportunity landed in my LinkedIn job search. I’d applied to a lot of other jobs at AstraZeneca, but this Apprenticeship in Bioinformatics would be quite a specialism compared to my (then current) research Masters. I had really enjoyed the bioinformatics analysis of viral genomes in my own project, and the opportunity to improve my data science skills got me very interested in the hiring team at the AZ Centre for Genomics Research.
Fast-forward to one year and one graduation later, and I am part of a wonderful, interdisciplinary team at the boundary between data scientists and laboratory scientists. I had come to the position with analytical experience and some R knowledge, but little other programming skills. Now, I help to manage the CGR genomics pipeline, troubleshoot data issues, and work on many smaller capability build projects, including multiomics and metagenomics work. I’ve also completed a year of my part-time Masters at Cranfield University, learning RNA NGS methods, machine learning, image analysis, and OMICs integration.
I’ve also become part of the diverse AZ Apprentice community, and I even set up a Journal Club back in April! At university, I found the Oxford tutorial system was amazing to help me practice understanding and critiquing papers, so I wanted to share the love to younger undergraduate Apprentices. I remember that developing my own opinions on high-level research gave me such a confidence boost talking to supervisors and colleagues, and now I practice discussing my particular interests by choosing Journal topics. Our last session focused on the gut microbiome impact of government limitations on the lifestyle of Irish Travellers, and how this can be used as a case study for implications of travel and migration on human health in our interconnected world. How fantastic to bring these conversations to work!
One of my personal priorities is being genuine and forthcoming with my experiences as an early career scientist. I am really proud of the nuanced discussions that take place in Journal Club, but there is also so much value from including school-age children in these conversations! I've been taking part in regular 'AMA'-style chat sessions with students through ImAScientist.com, a really cool initiative that aims to bridge the access gap between students and scientists.
I also want to increase awareness among university students about the benefits of a higher-level Apprenticeship, so please do reach out at my contact details. I hope to stay curious and connected as I move on with my actual job, and keep working on my communication and leadership skills as much as my programming.
If you are interested in being in our Alumni Spotlight series, drop us an email at alumni@biology.ox.ac.uk.
