I've never written a blog or anything like it before, the closest I've come to a blog is the odd twitter post. So thanks for reading and coming along on the ride with me! I wanted to properly introduce myself and tell you why I'm here attempting to start a blog.
Who am I? If I had to describe myself in a sentence I would say: I am a geologist who loves rocks (some geologists don't!), and I like cycling, fresh air, playing and listening to music, and my family. Let's rewind to the beginning to get the whole picture. When I was little I loved dinosaurs (who didn't?), and wanted to be a palaeontologist. Then I got into Time Team and it was a toss up between a palaeontologist and an archaeologist, but eventually palaeontologist won, due to the realisation that archaeology involved a lot of social science and things I just wasn't interested in (I still love watching Alice Roberts documentaries though!). Then when I started choosing my A-levels (after loving the physical geography bit of GCSE geography), I was looking into what degree courses required which A-levels, which was when I discovered with horror that doing a palaeontology degree wasn't a thing, apart from some obscure universities in the states!
So geology it had to be. I ended up at the University of Leeds studying geology, and had a fantastic time, but discovered that I really wasn't very good at palaeontology, which was a bummer. But I still loved rocks and wanted to pursue a career in rocks, whatever shape that might take. After finishing my integrated masters including a year abroad in Canada, I had many failed PhD applications. I eventually landed pretty much the dream job for any geologist, research assistant in the labs at the Natural History Museum. It was fantastic, the museum is like Hogwarts (I swear the staircases move) and you never knew what you were going to find around the corner or what someone was going to show you next (there were a lot of bugs on sticks). There is a cat pawprint in one of the bricks in a corridor in the basement, one of many fun facts I learned (and saw) over my time there. After working there for two years it was still possible for me to get lost, and no, I do not know where the nearest toilets are. I failed to meet David Attenborough (he had coffee with my lab shortly before I joined, absolutely gutted), but I did manage to see Hans Zimmer give an interview in the flesh, one of my many musical heroes (I may or may not have cried a little).
After a year and a half at the Natural History Museum I began applying for PhDs again, with a lot more lab experience under my belt, as this had always been the plan, get some more experience, try again. It worked, and here I am at the British Geological Survey with the University of Leicester studying rocks as a PhD student, in the middle/tail end of a pandemic.
That's the journey of how I got to where I am, along with lots of exams, work, performing in concerts, long bike rides and lots more besides. Now for why I'm here attempting to start a blog. I know first hand that not a lot of people really know what I do, no matter how hard I try and explain it (I'm better at writing things down than I am at verbalising them), and I know that I would have loved to have an insight into what geologists really do on a day to day basis before I got here (luckily I love it!).
I recently went to a conference where science communication careers was a main theme (think Alice Roberts, Simon Clark (a science content creator, youtuber and much more @simonoxfphys), David Attenborough), and I spent three days last week literally peering down a microscope at rocks, and the combination of both of these things got me thinking. Do people know what geologists and scientists really do on a day to day basis? Do they want to know? I believe the answer to the former is no, and the answer to the latter is: I guess we'll find out.
My posts will mainly have content about my day to day life as a geologist, the occasional scientific instrument run down (we sometimes play with lasers, and no we do not heat up noodles with them), and anything else I think of that might be relevant/interesting to do with science and geology.
If you've got this far, I thank you, and I hope you will want to read my future posts! If this has been really boring (or if you love it!) please let me know, there is a "contact me" bit somewhere.
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