Natalia Jagielska

This PhD was hosted in the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh in collaboration with National Museums Scotland and The Hunterian, University of Glasgow.

My project involved doing the description of a large, new Jurassic Pterosaur (flying reptile) from the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and seeing how it fits into a grand evolutionary story of reptiles during the reign of dinosaurs.

It was the chance to work on wonderful isle of Skye, where I did my undergraduate dissertation, and to move to Scotland, something I always wanted to do. Getting that doctorate was a surprise as I didn't expect for it to go through (I almost didn't!).

It was tricky to accept the doctorate, because during my Masters I realised that I was not too fond of academia and of the publishing culture associated with it. But, I couldn't find a meaningful work with my Masters in geology and was getting no job offers outside of some soul-crushing call centres. The doctorate was an option to earn money and stay in an industry adjacent to my degree. I'm glad I was in academia when the Covid pandemic hit, I could not imagine being unemployed and job seeking at that vulnerable period. I'm genuinely surprised how well paid and economically comfortable the E4 DTP stipends were. You get so much personal freedom and can save up for uncertain future ahead.

I wish I took more time off, stressed less and engaged more in training opportunities outside my degree.

I enjoyed travelling to museum collections, conferences and research collaborators, doing science outreach with local community, having enough free time to develop new career avenue (art) and building a strong social and professional network of friends and colleagues across the globe.

The ability to do specialist skills to my field (phylogeny, osteology), development of artistic skills (watercolors, digital), commerce, social media and interpersonal group skills

I went to Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Prague, Poland, Catalonia to do research, conference presentations, collections visits or internships. I won awards from prestigious institutions like the Edward Forbes Prize for an outstanding early career contribution in taxonomic palaeontology from the Palaeontographical Society.

My PhD confirmed that I'm not really cut out to be in academia, but that I like working in science education and outreach.

I'm currently employed as an Engagement and Collections Officer at the Lyme Regis Museum, doing fossil walks, curating collections and organising festivals at the birthplace of palaeontology. My objective is to find a long term, secure employment in science communication, and maybe develop my own private and social life at a slower pace