Article Date: 28 September 2015
Article Date: 28 September 2015
Year 12 and 13 science students gathered last week to see Tom Evans, a student from the University of Cambridge, talk about the project which had won him the John Ray Trust Science Prize 2015 and to give an insight into his work and his time as a student at the University.
Tom, a conservation scientist, spoke about his work carried out in the final year of his degree, involving research into whether bad governance around the world led to a worse outcome for conservation in those countries studied. Surprisingly, his findings reveal a counterintuitive situation where, in some cases, bad governance, including social unrest, poor compliance with international treaties etc. actually resulted in a lower influx of invasive species into that country or region; not what one would necessarily expect. Tom attributed this phenomenon to the poor governance contributing to lower movement of people which, in turn, improves conservation outcomes in general.
Tom went on to talk about his time at university and gave his top ten tips for why going to university to study science is a good idea; ideas ranging from ‘it’s great fun!’ to ‘science graduates can earn more during their working lives’.
Students had plenty of questions for Tom and he was able to speak informally to them after the presentation to pass on advice about applying to university and about student life.
