I’m a planetary scientist studying, classifying and curating the first UK Antarctic meteorite collection, at the University of Manchester. I completed my doctoral studies of martian meteorites and comet samples from the NASA Stardust mission at the University of Leicester in 2018.
I have taken an unusual route following my huge enthusiasm for all things space, by returning to education, which has led to many amazing space-related adventures, from being invited to the final space shuttle launch, to being given my first space rock, and now studying them and presenting my work at international conferences, some of which you can read about on my blog.
Here you can find out more about me, my scientific work, and events at which I am speaking or displaying meteorites. Click here for my curriculum vitae, academic publications or popular articles. I write the Solar System Exploration updates for the bimonthly “Popular Astronomy” magazine, but you will have to join the Society for Popular Astronomy in order to read them.
I’m an elected Council member of the Royal Astronomical Society and I am currently on the RAS200 Steering Board, for their £1 million education and outreach initiative, as well as being a corresponding member of the British Interplanetary Society education and outreach committee. I am also a STEM ambassador.
During the course of my studies I’ve attended an Arctic Science course at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Alpbach Summer School and Post-Alpbach workshop in Austria designing a mission to Uranus, Sudbury Impact Structure Field School in Ontario, Canada, “Impacts & their role in the evolution of life” summer school at the Kaali craters, Estonia, Zuni-Bandera volcanic field school, New Mexico, ISSET Astronaut Leadership Experience. and “Volcanism, Plate Tectonics, Hydrothermal Vents and Life” summer school in the Azores, as well as a volcanism field trip to Tenerife and a planetary field school in north Arizona and Utah. As a space enthusiast I have been invited to ATV Tweetup, ISS Symposium, MAVEN NASA Social, Farnborough International Airshow 2012 and 2014, and #MeetESO, a trip to visit the Paranal and ALMA observatories in the Atacama desert, Chile.