During International Day for Women and Girls in Science, we’re talking to some of the inspiring women scientists who are making their marks at Nutreco. Jennie de Haan works at Skretting Australia. She explains how science pursued her, rather than the other way around, and why working in R&D has turned out very differently than she had expected.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your role in Nutreco
I’m Jennie de Haan, and I’ve been working for Skretting for over two years as Product Officer. As part of my job, I work in product management of our Lifestart products, which include salmonids, warm water species and prawn. I also work in R&D. My job involves organising trials with our internal and external research stations. This includes things like trial feed production, trial design and setup, animal ethics applications, steering committee attendance, developing new protocols and methodology, daily check in with the trials, organizing and participating in benchmarking and sampling events, data analysis, cost-benefit calculations, report production, giving recommendations based on results, collaborating in research with industry partners, and of course, maintaining all of the related administration.
What inspired you to pursue a career in science?
My whole life I have loved animals, nature and especially the ocean. So, the fact that I started my bachelor’s in biology was a surprise for nobody. While choosing my master’s program, I purposefully chose the Aquaculture program as I did not want a career in “pure” science, but to work in a more applied way. I thought having a career in science meant I would have to write papers or applications for grants every day, which didn’t sound exciting. That’s why I initially took roles that were not R&D focused.
However, I do love doing research and working with the data afterwards – I’ve got an affinity for it. So, whenever it was possible within my role, I started picking up some of the R&D tasks that needed to be done. My enjoyment and strength in the area was noticed, so I got more R&D responsibilities assigned to me. Before I knew it, a big part of my daily activities were related to R&D, and that’s something I am very grateful for. I feel like I might not have pursued science initially, but science definitely pursued me.
Can you share a moment in your career that made you feel especially proud?
This is a difficult question, as good R&D is always a team effort. So, I am always very proud of the whole team. But there are two moments that jump out to me.
