I took a bit of a winding path to get here. After school I studied architecture, but that wasn’t for me so I took a year out, travelled around Canada, joined a band and did various random jobs. I came back to do a degree in London, then worked in web design, ending up in Barcelona, where I taught English and got into diving. That was what hooked me on the sea.
I did a marine-science course while there and loved it so much I moved back to the UK to do a Masters. I was lucky enough to get a PhD here at Oceanlab, studying bioluminescent animals in the deep sea. This involved going to sea regularly to collect data in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Now I have a young son, I primarily analyse data collected by colleagues, but I hope to get back on a boat once he is a bit older.
My morning I work three days a week, but I always tend to get up at about 6.30am unless woken earlier to talk about bunnies with my two-year-old son, who is obsessed by rabbits. My partner and I get him dressed, we have breakfast and then we make lunch and snacks for later. I drop him with the child minder, and get to work for 8am. I first check my inbox. The projects that I work on involve scientists from all over Europe, so there is not much face time and a lot of e-mails. Face time is important though, and so I also attend conferences and meetings now and again, where we all get together to present our findings and work out how to proceed with projects.
My lunchtime I usually have a packed lunch, sometimes in the office and sometimes with colleagues. Once a week, a yoga teacher comes to Oceanlab to give a very welcome lunchtime class.
My afternoon At the moment, I am working on several projects. One of them is looking at the community of deep-sea fish off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean Sea. A photographic lander is deployed on the sea floor, at a range of different depths, and takes a picture every minute for about 16 hours. I go through all the images and try to identify the animals: mostly fish and shrimp, but also jellyfish, sea cucumbers and snails. Sometimes, it can be really tricky to work out the identity of an animal and so I consult with specialists from all over the world. This work gives us important information on the community structure, and when we return to the area in a few years we can look at changes over time. If I’m not working on this or other data analysis, I might be preparing scientific papers for publication, looking for funding for future projects or working on science outreach projects. At 4pm, I finish work and go and collect my son from the childminder’s, which is just five minutes away. In the past, I might have stayed much later to finish something off, but having a young child certainly keeps me focused, with far fewer cups of tea and much less procrastination during the course of a day. There is a play park very near to our house, so once home we often meet up with some of the local mums and children for a chat and a play before dinner.
My evening My son and I might Skype grandparents before bath time and then have a few stories before bed. My partner usually gets home around 8pm and we’ll cook something quick and easy before relaxing in front of a good film.