Fiona Sobolewski Bravo

(she/her)

Overview

I graduated from the University of Galway in 2023 with a BSc (Hons) in Marine Science. My undergraduate dissertation explored the effects of Sacculina parasitisation on the hepatosomatic index of Carcinus maenas. During the summer of 2023, I completed a short internship that focused on quantifying the prevalence and severity of shell disease in local crustacean populations, focusing primarily on Cancer pagurus. These research projects introduced me to the impacts of disease outbreaks in aquatic environments and solidified my interest in aquatic health.

After graduating, I briefly worked for Inland Fisheries Ireland as a seasonal research assistant on their Climate Change Mitigation Research Project, collecting and processing their field data. I moved to the UK in 2024 and began working as a research technician at the University of Exeter within the Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water, and Waste (CREWW). During my time there, I supported a range of water quality, flood management, and peatland restoration projects in the collection of their field data.

As part of the SWBio DTP, my PhD project aims to investigate the omic interactions associated with susceptibility, resistance, and responder phenotypes in fish infected with the Gyrodactylus ectoparasite. I am being supervised by Prof Jo Cable, Dr Sophie Watson, Prof Pete Kille from Cardiff University and by my CASE partner Dr Ronny van Aerle from CEFAS.