Nathan Williams

Hi my name is Nathan Williams and I’m in my third year of a Doctor of Philosophy, Science. My pathway to a postgraduate research degree was via a  Bachelor of Science, Majoring in Biotechnology in 2017 and followed by Honours in Environmental Science in 2018, both at UTS.

I was inspired you to pursue a research career during my undergrad years when I did a few  volunteer research projects. I had a great PhD student, William King, mentor me through these, which was quite inspiring. I also want to make a difference in the world by adding to the knowledge that we have as a species.

I research the microbial ecology within the seawater of coastal environments. The project has a strong focus on pathogenic bacteria, and bacteria associated with pollutants in stormwater and sewage overflow. I was attracted to this research topic because being someone who surfs most mornings, and loves nature and the environment, I have a strong passion for maintaining these environments and ensuring that we minimise human impact on them. I also compare microbial ecology to looking at the stars. At night you look up and see millions of stars all in their own complex environments which is mesmerising, well it can be the same for looking down a microscope (or at a 16S data set) at all the microbes in their complex environments.

I chose to do my PhD in the Climate Change Cluster (C3) because I had the opportunity to do a project with Justin Seymour, my honours co-supervisor. I really respect his attitude towards science and look up to him as mentor. I’ve had some great experiences at C3 including doing fieldwork with Dr Nahshon Siboni - having a laugh and getting into nature to take samples is always exciting. Having the opportunity to help plan a project and see practical outputs from this project (i.e. the government remediating some stormwater networks as a result of our research) is also very inspiring. Another great experience has been getting to be a part of the community, having fun and sharing ideas with my research peers.

Studying this degree has forced me to be very organised and enhanced my time management skills a lot. Bigger picture, I have learnt new ways to look at the environment around me, and through mentorship from my supervisors, new ways at looking and approaching data sets, in an attempt to communicate science to others both with and without science backgrounds/knowledge in my field.

Thinking about the skills I’ve learnt and my plans for the future, after graduation, I would love to go and do post-doctoral research  in America, to continue to challenge myself and learn more. Obviously, my research degree has equipped me with the skills to do research in my field and so they are relevant to my future plans. However while technical skills can be learnt at any point, I think the writing skills I’ve picked up from my supervisors will be some of the most relevant for my future career. This has tuned the way I think and how to approach what the data is telling us, and why people should care about that, which in the end is a very fundamental part of science.

My advice to undergraduate students considering postgraduate research studies would be to approach academics in the fields of research you are interested in. At UTS this could be the subject coordinators of subjects you liked during your undergraduate degree. This is an entry point to meet more researchers and to get a taste of what research is like. In the end, you can move around here and there before you start your PhD, but ideally you want your focus to be set on some sort of topic by then. I would also get used to reading papers, not only for the research, but for the authors, so you can start to get an idea of who is good at what. By that time you’ll gain some standards and be engaged in your topic, if not, then re-consider research because as a few people have always told me, it’s not all about how smart you are, it’s also about how much you care and how much effort you put in.

Learn more about higher research degrees at UTS Science