Launching in 2025, the Early Career award offers the opportunity to recognise the contributions of our early career members' enthusiasm, dedication, and service during their membership with SCI.
This year's winner is Sophie Read for her exceptional service to the Agri-Food Early careers group, the Scotland Group and her dedication to SCI's early careers programme. Sophie will receive her award at SCI's AGM on 2 July 2025
Read Sophie's interview below:
When and why did you become a member of SCI?
I became a member of the SCI in 2021 when I started my placement as part of my PhD, with the SCI Horticulture group working on the HE Landscape project.
Why did you decide to get involved in committee work?
I decided to get involved in committee work because I was really enjoying my placement and felt that the work of the committee fitted in well with my PhD which is agri-food related looking at year round strawberry production in the UK.
What has driven your continued involvement with SCI?
I have been motivated to continue my work because I think it is so important to try and promote the agri-food sector and get more people involved from an earlier stage in their careers as this will help bring new ideas in. I have also been invested in some of the projects that both the Horticulture Society and the ECC have been involved in including publishing papers about the lacking provision of plant science and agri-food related topics in Higher Education.
How has being involved in SCI activities had an impact on your professional career?
Being involved in SCI activities has allowed me to contribute to and be a named author on a couple of papers which are linked to my agri-food related PhD. They have also allowed me to present my knowledge about strawberries from my PhD to the public at the BBC Gardener’s World Live event where we had a stall.
How do your SCI activities reflect your personal/professional interests?
I am very passionate about promoting agri-food to the wider community and want to get as many people involved as possible and make people more aware of its importance which aligns with the SCI’s aims.
What advice would you give to Early career individuals joining the society?
I would say that you get out of the society what you put in. The more activities that you volunteer to help with and get involved in the more you will come away with, including developing a wide range of transferable skills.
How do you think that your contribution has helped shape SCI?
I think that I have helped to keep the Early Careers Committee going through difficult times, when we were very low in numbers and were at risk of being unable to continue. I believe it is really important to keep it going to try and get more young people interested in promoting agri-food and its importance to the wider public. We have achieved this through successful recruitment and are currently doing well for numbers but would like to get even more people involved as we hope to develop further.
What are your thoughts about receiving an Early Career Award?
I am very excited and grateful to receive this award. I hope that it will inspire other people at the start of their careers in agri-food to get involved and join us to help build and make our society even better.
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