Profile

Rock pooling was one of my favourite things to do when I was little, they are like windows into a completely different world. I wanted to see who lived there and say hello! I was very lucky to grow up on the south coast of England and would be at the beach as much as possible. My mum jokes that I could swim before I could walk and that I was a little fish. The ocean feels like home.

From an early age I was passionate about nature, however when it came to deciding what on Earth I was going to do with my life after school, I was unsure. I always loved science but I wasn’t very confident and never felt smart enough. I had a complicated home life and I never felt like I was good enough. I’m so glad I decided to try and become a marine biologist though because now I am and I love what I do!

I’m currently living in Hull with my boyfriend. We try and get outside and explore nature as much as possible. The Yorkshire coast is gorgeous and we love to camp! I also volunteer with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust running local beach cleans.

My research aims to predict how microplastics (very small pieces of plastic) move in a major river and out to sea as well as understanding how coral reefs are being effected by plastic pollution in the South China Sea. I hope this will improve how plastic pollution is managed to prevent it from reaching our oceans.

At the moment, I get up reasonably early and the first thing I usually do is make a cup of tea! I then walk to University which is about 25 minutes away and go to the lab. I spend about half an hour preparing my experiments which is looking at how biofilms – small organisms – growing on plastic changes how they move in water. I spend the whole morning in the lab and then come home for lunch. After lunch I catch up on emails, read papers and try to get some writing done! I usually have other side projects going on at the same time too such as an art competition showing how our world will change in 30 years.