Every graduate student knows that behind any faculty position lies many years as a postdoctoral fellow. The big problem here is getting those postdoctoral positions, which itself is a bottleneck, unfortunately weeding out the unlucky many. This has formed the basis of my anxiety for the last few years since I handed in my PhD. I had a postdoctoral position, but only for a year. The constant worry of where that next job was coming from was hugely stressful. I spent a year as a fisheries scientific observer until I got my next position, and this was for one more year.

Last night I found out that I had finally been awarded a huge grant, which would provide my salary and research costs for the next three years. Obviously the amount of relief I am feeling is huge. I can finally plan my future for the next three years and actually feel settled. A lot of my work will be looking at the above fish. Can you guess what it is?