KZ: Hi Skye! Did you study any subjects or courses, take part in any activities or have any hobbies as a child that gave you skills you use at work?

S: When I was in primary school I would take empty jars around with me everywhere, just in case I would stumble across some interesting bugs. I would take the bugs to school and tell my class all about them. Science was definitely my favourite subject at school and now I talk to school students all the time about the fascinating world of bugs, I’ve had lots of practice doing it.

KZ: What are the best and worst parts of your job?

S: The best part of my job is that I get to teach people about the importance of sustainability in farming foods in a fun and exciting way. I never get tired of excited faces when someone is about to try edible insects for the very first time. The worst part of my job is cleaning. Cleaning the food that we feed the crickets, cleaning the cricket houses, cleaning our robots, cleaning our food processing equipment….I clean so much I dream about cleaning…

KZ: What would K-Zoners be surprised to learn about you?

S: I have a pet cockroach names Woodstock. She’s 18 years old and has been on lots of TV shows and even horror movies. Woodstock is an Australian native cockroach and eats dried eucalyptus leaves, they are an important part of our environment because they circle the energy from the leaves back into our food chain by Turing it back into soil.

KZ: What inspired your decision to study science relating to insects and food at university?

S: I’ve always been fascinated by bugs, they’re all so unique and amazing in their own right, so it was natural for me to study entomology when I went to uni. I have wanted to be an entomologist since I was four years old. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of jobs for entomologists in Australia and I wanted to make sure I had a job when I finished uni, and there was a shortage of food scientists at the time, so I studied food science at the same time. I quickly fell in love with food science, there is no much amazing science that goes into the foods that we eat and after just a few lectures I knew I had made the right choice. I’m so fortunate that I’ve been able to combine these two amazing sciences into a job that I absolutely adore.

Remember: Never eat bugs that you find! Skye is an expert, and knows how to safely make insect snacks! 

Skye's life story appears in Aussie STEM Stars: Skye Blackburn-Lang – Eating bugs for the planet, which is on sale now! 

Want to read more of our interview with Skye? Grab the November 2022 issue of K-Zone, out now!