As I work towards my PhD, I can't help but look back on how I got here. When I was 11 or so, I saw the film Lorenzo's Oil. The excitement of finding a cure for a disease captured my imagination and made me want to be a doctor. Learning of the cell structure, DNA and genes at school, I was enthralled. At the age of 17, after visiting hospitals and starting to apply to medical school, I decided I wanted to investigate the causes of genetic diseases rather than treat the symptoms. A degree in biology followed.

While at university, I discovered evolution on a big scale: the subtleties and power of it, unrealized at school, astonished me. Developmental genetics also interested me — how a single cell develops into a complete organism. Evo-devo was the area that would allow me to combine the two.

Plants seemed the best model system to ask how genetics shapes the development of different organisms. Not only are there plenty of advanced research techniques available, but plants are pleasant to work with. Unlike mice, worms or flies, leaves of different shapes and sizes surround me every day as I walk to university. How could I not be fascinated by their evolution? Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like to do more medical work. But give me a greenhouse full of ferns over an incubator of mammalian cell cultures any day.