Feature
A CAREER THAT HAS BLOOMED
From North Wales to Kent to Florida to Southampton, Dr Cathy Lucas’ love of the sea and the wildlife within it has dictated her impressive career from the get-go. Dr Cathy Lucas has been with the University of Southampton for over 32 years. In that time, she has become an Associate Professor in Marine Biology and is dedicated to the University community. Cathy has always been drawn to the sea and and has always lived in a coastal town or city. Explaining her research, she said: “My primary interest is the study of jellyfish blooms, which is quite a specialised area. I didn’t start out like that though, my undergraduate degree was in Zoology at Swansea University because I had interests in so many areas of the animal kingdom. It was when I travelled to Australia and New Zealand after my degree and spent some time working at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, that my path into marine wildlife and biology was secured.”
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Jellyfish expert That trip Down Under led to Cathy applying to study for a PhD at the University of Southampton in the then Department of Oceanography. Her thesis was on ‘Gelatinous predators and their impact on the zooplankton community of Southampton Water’. “It felt like fate when the PhD supervisor I was allocated revealed he came from the same town in Wales as me and did his undergraduate degree at Swansea as I had,” said Cathy. “With my PhD under my belt, I headed to Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Florida to undertake a oneyear post-doctoral fellowship studying deep-sea jellyfish. “The fellowship was fascinating and studying in America was a real experience, but I was keen to get back to Southampton having enjoyed the University and the city so much during my PhD.”
“ My primary interest is the study of jellyfish blooms, which is quite a specialised area.” Dr Cathy Lucas Associate Professor in Marine Biology
