Dr Mingli Zhao is a second-year postdoc in Sarah Hill’s group at the Royal Veterinary College (London, UK), currently working on a BBSRC-funded research project titled 'Genomic epidemiological determination of routes of pathogenic virus transmission between farmed salmon'. Her academic journey began with a master’s degree in fish immunology at Chinese Academy of Sciences (Qingdao, China), followed by a PhD in marine biology at University of Maryland (Baltimore, US). Her PhD dissertation investigated interactions among climate, host life history, and viral diversity in marine animals. Having sequenced hundreds of viral genomes using Oxford Nanopore sequencing for postdoctoral research, Mingli is eager to receive additional training in virus evolution and epidemiology to conduct further phylogenetic and phylodynamic analyses.