Portrait of Alex

What were your passions and professional aspirations when you were a child?

When I was younger, I always wanted to be a naturalist, inspired by watching nature documentaries and lots of David Attenborough. Alongside this, I also loved everything to do with dinosaurs and rocks. My Nana always made me an advent calendar with little rocks and minerals for each day, and this is where my love of geology and geophysics must have started! 

What is your academic background and why did you choose it?

I studied at the University of Cambridge, doing Natural Sciences for my undergraduate and Earth Sciences for my master’s degree. Initially, I thought I would focus on pure physics having enjoyed this at school, but in my first year I discovered Earth Sciences. I love the multidisciplinary aspect of Earth Sciences and how you use as many different observations as you can across different techniques to tell a story. I really enjoyed my time studying and am looking forward to combining my love of physics and geology at Look Up Geoscience and throughout my PhD which I’ll be working on jointly with the University of Montpellier!  

Who are the influential people who have shaped your life choices?

In my previous role at Viridien, I worked as part of the geothermal team, and we had a master’s student join us for three months to research and write his master’s thesis. As his main supervisor, I enjoyed teaching him how to use our tools from scratch and working with him to complete the research. Knowing how much work had gone into it from both of us and having been part of the project from start to finish, it was really rewarding watching him complete his final presentation and be awarded a good mark at the end of it.