Dr Nicola Nadeau became interested in the natural world at a young age. After studying Zoology at Newcastle, she secured a PhD at Cambridge in evolutionary genetics.
She moved from being unsure that genetics was really the area she wanted to be in, to becoming captivated by the possibilities it presented. She thoroughly enjoyed the PhD process, helped along by a supportive department and supervisor.
After completing her PhD and a brief stint as a postdoc with her PhD adviser, she moved on to a 5 year postdoc position in a different lab. With the support of her postdoc adviser, she developed a side project into a fellowship application.
After a few unsuccessful attempts, she bolstered her publication record with some high profile articles and was eventually successful, securing a NERC fellowship at Sheffield.
This was a major transition and quite lonely at times but she formed some strong collaborations and has now settled into managing her own research group on the evolution of structural colour in butterflies.
More about Nicola:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/biosciences/people/academic-staff/nicola-nadeau
Look at her timeline and career milestones:
https://academicstories.group.shef.ac.uk/nicola-nadeau/