Profile

I do fieldwork and undertake laboratory experiments in a big laboratory flume (a bit like the log flume rides at theme parks) to better understand how sediments, such as mud, sands and gravel, are moved about across the surface of Earth. By understanding this better we can improve our predictions about how our rivers, coasts and seas will change with climate and also understand how earth has evolved over the geological past.

My work is really varied.

Sometimes I am on fieldwork – I can go away for up to a month working on surveys in remote places. I have also spent time on research ships at sea for a few weeks at a time.

Sometimes I have some big experiments going on. We have a big Experimental Tank facility at Hull that is great for doing a range of experiments. Doing these experiments can take up a lot of my time, preparing and planning through to doing the experiments. Last year we did some experiments looking at how large floods may have created the massive outflood channels on Mars – these are valleys that are much bigger than the grand canyon, but we are still not sure how they were made.

When I am in the office I have lots of email to deal with – too many! I also process, analyse and write reports and science articles about the findings from the fieldwork and the experiments. I also have lots of meetings about research and planning research projects. I have a team of Post-Doctoral Researchers (they are research scientists who have finished their PhD and are working with me on specific projects) and also a big team of  Ph.D. students who are all working on projects too – so I meet with them all about once a week to see what progress has been made.