Profile

I was born in Singapore and have spent the past 8 years in the UK, Oxford. My favourite hobby is dance, mainly the latin style, for example Samba and Paso Doble (Bull fight dance). Dance is also a mean for me to communicate the research that scientists do, you can watch some of them by clicking on the links below.

I also love playing board games and going to the forest, the showers in the freshwater rivers are just amazingly refreshing! I was once bitten by a snake and thought I would die. 

A video on same-sex behaviour in animals
https://vimeo.com/129345008

Winner of Dance you PhD 2013 by Science:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2013/11/dance-your-ph.d.-and-winner-%E2%80%A6

Winner of Evolution 2012 Video Contest by NESCent (National Evolution Synthesis Center): https://vimeo.com/44808911

Winner of Dance your PhD 2012 (Biology category) by Science: http://vimeo.com/30211782

During my PhD (after undergraduate), I looked at how relatedness (e.g. brother-brother relationship) can affect the sexual interactions in a group of chickens and fruit flies. It was an exciting experience, watching animals do it while I record it as data.

Thereafter, I joined the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit which does research onto the wild cats and dogs of the forest. I am currently looking at the behaviour of the clouded leopards and how it affected by environmental factors like deforestation and human activity. I also design educational boardgames to teach biology and see how students react to them. I have a game where students are male chickens deciding which females to choose to mate with and another game where students have to move through forest to collect data on the clouded leopard.

Zzzzzz. I love teaching and interacting with students so any opportunity to teach or do outreach trumps that of my research. haha

Morning yoga, then superhero duties like playing games with students and research work into saving the clouded leopards. In between work time, I do a 5-10 min workout, the intense workout is better than coffee. After 7pm, I go for dance, or watch a film or hang out with friends. At 10pm, my battery is flat and its time for a superhero recharge.

When in the forest in Malaysia, we trek from 7am to 7pm, can be quite tough and our aim is to get to the cameras installed in the forest to collect data on clouded leopards. Another of our goal is not get into trouble with the wasps, snakes and poisonous plants.