Miss Natt Day BSc MRes
Digital Engagement Officer
Natt Day is the Digital Engagement Officer within the Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu) at the University of Southampton. Her role focuses on embedding the use of digital platforms/media to increase the visibility and reach of public engagement activities at the University. Additionally Natt is responsible for all digital content related to PERu-- from social media through to creation of the Researchers' Cafe podcast series.
Prior to working within the PERu team, Natt Day was a PhD student in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. Her research project was 'The effect of human rhinovirus-16 infection on specific microRNAs, innate immune responses and epithelial barrier of bronchial epithelial cells from healthy and asthmatic donors' working with Dr Jane Collins and the Epithelial Barrier and Inflammation group in CES.
Throughout her PhD, Natt was a keen supporter of public engagement within the Faculty of Medicine-- contributing regularly to 'Meet the Scientist' sessions at LifeLab, designing and running a 'Lungs' PE project as part of the Bringing Research to Life Roadshow and Southampton Science and Engineering Festival, working as a STEMnet ambassador, and working as a volunteer in a number of capacities for PERu projects. Natt's contribution to PE was recognised by receiving both the 'Research communicator of the year' and 'Most creative activity design' at the Roadshow awards in 2014 and the 'Extreme Networking: Access All Areas' award in 2015. Natt has also performed stand-up comedy routines around her research (entitled '4 years studying the sniffles') and spoken at CafeSci and Speakeeze events about her research area. She continues this freelance science communication whilst working with PERu.