“Initially, I started making videos online during the pandemic in my second year of my bachelor’s degree. I was studying Biomedicine at the University of East Anglia and was trapped inside during the pandemic. Creating content online for me was a way to be creative and connect with people. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the start of an incredible journey for me.

Growing an online following and inclusiveness in science

As I started progressing through my undergraduate dissertation, I  amassed over 42,000 followers. I shared aspects of my life and created a community of people who wanted to see me grow and thrive.

As I started creating more content about my life, I also shared the interesting science topics I learned. It was also online where I showcased myself as an LGBTQ+ content creator.

It was at the Norwich Science Festival, where I attended my very first LGBTQ+ science event, where I finally saw more people like me. I started getting more involved in EDI and LGBTQ+ groups at the Norwich Research Park to learn and understand what it takes to actively create inclusive spaces.

This was where I started to understand that the online content and growing platform I had was the best place to showcase my LGBTQ+ life and the intersection within science.

Sharing science stories

It was during my three-month teaching placement during my PhD in Kenya where I learned I absolutely loved lecturing and seeing students learn and grow. After some reflection, I understood that there are so many barriers to education and learning, and I wanted to help educate and inspire as many people as I could. When I returned back to the UK, I wanted to continue gaining experience teaching, which in turn fueled a transition to teaching scientific concepts online.

This then became the three pillars that my content revolved around:

• Making science and literature fun and accessible
• Showcasing diverse and inspirational role models
• Teaching and educating with accurate information

Completing a PhD and winning a TikTok Award in the same week

On 26 September 2025, I pressed submit on my laptop. An email reply from the graduate school office confirmed that I had successfully submitted my PhD thesis on the evolutionary history and population diversity of Escherichia coli from different niches. I ran over to my lab group and celebrated with them. I felt a mixture of pride and an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. My supervisor walked over to me and gave me a high-five, and then I mentally and emotionally decompressed with my friends in the group.

I landed in the UK on 1 November 2025 and was finishing my preparation for my viva on the plane ride back from the US. At the end of a PhD is an oral examination where a doctoral candidate defends their thesis before a panel of academic experts. I had prepared for this all throughout my PhD, and I was feeling excited to finally get home, and get back to the Quadram Institute.

On 6 November 2025, I was suited and raring to go into my morning viva. Five days prior, I had returned from a month volunteering at an animal rehabilitation centre in Belize where I survived a scuffle with a spider monkey (and got a cool scar under my left eye). I also came back from a trip to Microsoft Research in Seattle, where I had the opportunity to interview the head of Microsoft Research Peter Lee and talk about education, AI and the current work in his field.

I entered my viva with an annotated thesis, some questionable stains from the animal rehabilitation centre, and a massive smile. I was greeted by my two knowledgeable examiners and was ready to defend the research I had been undertaking for the past four years. At the end of the viva, I texted my supervisor that my examiners were deliberating. The Quadram atrium was filled with my beaming voice and enthusiasm – the viva had gone well! I enjoyed every aspect of it and was excited to hear the outcome.

On 13 November, a week after I passed my viva with minor corrections, I was in London at the UK and Ireland TikTok Awards. I dressed myself in a traditional Filipino barong, a shirt typically made from pineapple fiber (piña), banana silk, or organza, and I went into the evening just as excited as I went into my viva. There, I was named UK and Ireland’s TikTok Content Creator of the Year for Books and Learning.

On 10 December, one month after I was the TikTok Awards, I was on set filming BBC Bitesize Biology. After the filming, I was back in my hotel room working on finishing some manuscripts from my PhD.

The process of balancing a PhD and creating scientific content online

I have recently given two guest lectures at the University of East Anglia post-PhD – one for a science communication module for Biology students, and another for Journalism students. And the same question came up: how did I do it?

I usually stumble out an answer: “I just have a lot of energy and I was trying to balance both these things at the same time”. But I feel like that answer is never useful to anyone. I would like to credit the organisational and prioritisation skills that I gained during my PhD, but I think there are three fundamental reasons why I managed to do both:

• Enjoyment: I genuinely loved the topic I was studying. I loved my supervisory team and my lab group. The amount of academic, mental, and emotional support they gave me during my PhD was instrumental to helping me thrive. I also genuinely loved making videos online. It was a hobby that eventually turned into something more serious.
• Prioritisation: I understood that my PhD was always the priority. But in moments where I needed a break, I would set up a tripod, do a bit of research, and maybe a bit of editing to help relax from academia. Science communication and creating content online was a way to unwind.
• Streamlining: The main reason why I could do both was because content creation fed off my own learning throughout my PhD. Whenever I kept up with current scientific literature or found a new paper for my PhD, a thought would pop up: “How can I make this easy to understand?”. And unknowingly, I was helping myself understand my topics.

Streamlining using the Feynman Technique

The Feynman Technique was a learning approach I read up on whilst obtaining my Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). This is an extremely useful technique for learning (and for teaching), that I was unintentionally doing already. The Feynman Technique is a four step approach:

1. Review, research and study the subject to gather information.
2. Simplify it and teach it like you are explaining it to a child
3. Identify gaps where you couldn’t explain it properly and go back to the source material to strengthen those areas
4. Simplify and refine the notes into stories and analogies

This was the approach I used to understand the foundations of the work leading up to my PhD. But this was is also a useful approach for communicating science. Since I had already done the work for my PhD, I applied it to making videos.

The future

As I am writing this, I have amassed over 500K followers on all my social media platforms. Never in my wildest dreams would 20-year-old Gab believe that in five years, he would create platforms and a community like this, whilst obtaining a PhD in research that he loved.

I’m grateful to have gained many academic experiences during my PhD, but also to have created opportunities in areas of science communication. I got to give talks at the Royal Institution for the international day of LGBTQ+ people hosted by Pride in STEM, a talk for the Linnean Society, panels and talks at the Norwich Science Festival, and recently talk at IBM for LGBTQ+ History Month. I was invited to the Royal Institution for a podcast about antimicrobial resistance, worked with the BBC for the Creator Lab, and was also awarded the Future Presenter Award by the Edinburgh TV Festival x Amplify.

There are some incredible opportunities out there that I cannot wait to experience and share, and I hope you enjoy coming along with me on my journey.”