Born near Hillsborough, Co. Down, Harry discovered a love for mechanics and engineering whilst working at his brother’s motor and bicycle repair business.

He subsequently became the first man in Ireland to design and develop his own aeroplane – a replica of which can be seen at the Ulster Folk and Transport museum. His first flight took place in December 1909.

By 1911, Harry had set up his own garage in Belfast. When, in 1917, the Irish Board of Agriculture approached him on how to improve yield of food production, he turned to the design of machinery.

He saw fault with the large, heavy American tractors that he was selling through his garage, especially how the cumbersome design worked with the plough. Harry built his own plough, light and simple, and coupled it to the tractor in a three point linkage system, making it a single rather than two separate units. The innovation was brilliant and safe. He patented the ‘Ferguson System’ in 1926.

In 1938 Harry sold a tractor design to Henry Ford and by 1947, 300,000 Ford Ferguson tractors had been sold. Unfortunately the partnership ended with a lengthy lawsuit in 1950. Later, Harry merged with Massey-Harris, a Canadian company, to form Massey-Ferguson, who are renowned for selling tractors and other agricultural machinery throughout the world.

Michael Gaffney, Horticultural Development Officer

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

I suppose the biggest career decision I made so far was deciding to give science another go after failing my first year in Maynooth.

To be honest I was fairly close to packing it in at that stage, but I am very glad now that some people, my parents especially, convinced me to give it another go.

After that, the decision to give up my job in Swansea to return to Teagasc. I had always wanted to work in academia, in a university, lecturing and doing research, but after a few months realised that I didn’t particularly enjoy it. Even still it was a very hard decision to move away from lecturing into an advisory role.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

My parents have probably been the biggest influence in my career decision, mainly in the fact that they mostly stood back and let me make my own decisions, even when it looked like I was making the wrong one.

They offered advice at times but would leave it up to me to make the final decision.

A lot of the people who I met while doing my postgraduate in Kinsealy have helped me to get the job I now have, either by taking 10 minutes here and there to teach me something new, or by introducing me to other scientists I could learn from.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

I am very happy with the lifestyle that my job provides for me. I spend a large proportion of my working day outdoors. I get to travel a lot.

As it is a public sector job, it has good security and promotion prospects if you are willing to work hard. The hours can be fairly flexible, which always makes life a little easier, avoiding traffic etc.

Describe a typical day

I suppose I have two kinds of typical days, depending on what area I need to focus on.

A day doing advisory work usually involves spending the first half of the day visiting growers, talking about what problems or issues they are having and also talking over any successes that also may have occurred.

The second half of the day would be back in the office following up on any queries or questions that arose from the visits that morning.

A day working on research projects usually involves conducting and setting up experiments. Experiments in horticulture, especially field trials, need to be planned extremely well because if errors are made in the set-up, you usually have to wait till the next year to repeat it.

Administrative work involved with research projects takes up a lot of time, but it has to be done. In reality my typical day is usually a mishmash of the two.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

My main task is to provide an advisory service to growers, especially protected crop growers (crops grown in glasshouses and plastic tunnels).

This can mean helping them with advice, from crop nutrition to pest and disease control and pesticide advice to help with government schemes. I am also responsible for conducting research programmes which have special relevance to the area of horticulture.

The areas I focus on are pesticide replacement (biological control), phytochemicals (health-promoting chemicals) from fruit and vegetables, and the benefits of using compost in horticulture.

What are the main challenges?

Trying to keep up to date with new innovations in the protected crops area. A lot of the research being conducted in the area is by private companies, so by the time it becomes public knowledge, it is usually a couple of years old.

Because of this, I spend a lot of time going to growers conferences and visiting growers in other countries to keep up to date.

Horticulture is very much about trends – some years grasses are very popular, the next year aliums may be the big sellers.

Even in the fruit and vegetable sector things are always changing, be it the colour (blue potatoes, black carrots), size (different baby vegetables) or even new markets such as fresh herbs, which, except for parsley, would not have been very popular 10 years ago, are now becoming incredibly popular. Keeping up with all the new trends can also be difficult.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

Enthusiasm, an ability to learn from previous mistakes, friendliness, problem-solving skills.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

I suppose I made a couple of bad choices for my Leaving Cert. I chose chemistry which to this day I’m not really sure why, as I was always better at biology.

I also did accounting which helped me decide that the one thing I definitely did not want to be was an accountant. In hindsight, I probably should have picked biology and economics.

I think the best thing about the Leaving Cert is that because you can do such a wide range of subjects, it helps you decide what career areas you definitely have no interest in as well as some areas you might like to study further.

Being 17 to 18 is very young to decide on what you want to do for the rest of your life, and while it works for some people, I think for the majority it’s best to pick the subjects you enjoy (or hate the least).

What is your education to date?

I did my Leaving Certificate at Coolmine Community School, but did not do very well, mostly due to me being lazy but I think I also made some bad subject choices (my father was a guidance councilor and he tried to advise me, but I thought I knew better).

In the CAO I was offered a place to do science at Maynooth which I took. Again I didn’t do very well in my first year, passing biology but failing maths, chemistry and computer science.

I ended up repeating the year and decided to start studying properly – otherwise I would fail completely or be a fairly old man by the time I finally graduated. I ended up knuckling down and three years later managed to graduate with a degree in biology.

I was then offered a place to do a masters in UCD and Teagasc at Kinsealy. It was based on developing fungi to control insect pests.

It was a little different to normal masters projects, in that it was very applied, but also allowed me some freedom to research areas which interested me.

After four and a half years at Kinsealy I went to work at the University of Wales in Swansea, where I was running a project on developing fungi to control forest and nursery stock pests. Eventually I returned to Teagasc to take up my role as a horticultural development officer at Kinsealy

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

My degree from Maynooth gave me a very broad knowledge of biology, chemistry and maths. This has made it easier to move into different areas of research.

Our biology degree spanned modules from molecular immunology to ecology, and it really gives you a good solid foundation in many areas of science.

Also there were a number of plant biology courses which have helped a lot in the advisory side of my job.

Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?

In horticulture, most of the further training happens by attending conferences and seminars, mostly abroad, which is a nice perk. I do intend to take some sort of management course in the next year or two.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

Graduating from college. Setting up my own research areas.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

Listening to people, flexibility, and curiosity.

What is your dream job?

If I could I would love to grow grapes in the south of France or be a rugby journalist. If I could combine the two, even better.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

If you want to get into horticulture, be it in research, advice or actually growing, there are many different ways to get the necessary skills.

You can start by working in a nursery, learning on the job. Also applying to some of the horticultural colleges or research stations for work experience will also give you a good idea what this industry is about.

There are plenty of college courses, both full- and part-time, that you can do. You can even get into the industry later in life if you wish to do another degree/course first.

A lot of the people I see in horticultural college are people who have already started one career but then decided to go back to horticulture. A lot of people see horticulture a way of making their hobby into their job.

Dr Margherita Gioria, Environmental science researcher

What were the main career decision milestones in your life so far?

An unstable economic situation in my country, as well as a strong desire for financial independence, led me to undertake a degree in economics. After five years (that is the duration of a science degree in Italy), I obtained a very good job as a financial advisor and analyst in one of the most important financial institutions in Italy.

Over time, however, I discovered that what I really wanted was to research environmental issues. I decided to leave my job and do an MSc in Environmental Science. I loved the experience and I went on to do a PhD in Botany, which I successfully completed more than a year ago.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

Some of the lecturers at the Department of Environmental Resource Management at University College Dublin inspired me with their passion for nature and encouraged me to pursue a career in science.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Building a career as a researcher is a long process, but it has also given me a lot of satisfaction. Among the things that I like most of my job is the opportunity to study invertebrate and plant communities, and being in contact with nature.

University researchers are task-oriented so the hours are flexible, although I spend most of my spare time in the field. Presentation of my research at conferences is also a plus.

I have visited many countries over the past four years and established contacts with international researchers. Teaching and supervising the projects of undergraduates and postgraduate students is also very rewarding.

Describe a typical day

From April until October, I spend a lot of my time in the field collecting data and samples. This gives me the opportunity to get in contact with nature and meet very interesting people although it can be very tiring, especially under bad climatic conditions.

The identification of plants and insects, the chemical analysis of water samples, as well as the statistical analysis of the data collected are the most important aspects of my job. Writing scientific papers and attending and presenting the findings of my research at conferences are also a key part of my research work.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

My main responsibility is to conduct research on the effects of agriculture on the biodiversity of ponds. This involves collecting plants, insects and water samples in the field, mainly from ponds within farms, golf courses and other habitats.

Approximately half of my time is then dedicated to the statistical analysis of the data that I collect, as well writing and reading scientific papers and reports, attending conferences, and keeping up-to-date with research in my field.

What are the main challenges?

Writing papers for publication in international journals is one of the biggest challenges of my job.

What’s cool?

I like all aspects of my job, from field work to the analysis of data.

What’s not so cool?

Jumping into ponds in a rainy day… Finding highly polluted water-bodies with little life in them.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I have the ability to independently develop research projects, and also possess good written, oral and interpersonal communication skills. Originality, creativity and innovation are also traits that have helped me in my career.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

I took Maths, Biology, Physics, Latin, Philosophy, History, Italian and English. I believe that all these subjects helped me in my career. I still use some of the basic ideas I studied in school, and the study skills I developed in schools helped me later on in university.

What is your education to date?

I hold a BSc in Economics (5 years), an MSc in Environmental Resource Management (1 year), and a PhD in Botany (3 years)]

What personal qualities do you have that help you in your career?

I am determined, curious, analytical, organized, and creative. I have strong management skills and I love reading, writing, and giving seminars and lectures. My strong passion for nature has also helped me a lot in my career.

What is your dream job?

One that allows me to conduct research that helps the conservation of nature, as well as teaching the value of biodiversity to students and people in general.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Be determined, organised, and creative. Good management and communication skills are essential, as well as a strong educational background and analytical skills.

What kind of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Working for an environmental consultant or the Environmental Protection Agency would be good experience.