Profile

I live in Wimbledon with two friends who work at the same company I do – we are all very different people and try to get out of the house and do something new every weekend.

I’ve spent a lot of time abroad over the past few years for work and for fun, which has its ups and downs (lots of fun, but very tiring!). I changed industry last year and moved from working in the Middle East to working in the UK, and am enjoying the slightly cooler weather and normal working hours. I’ve lived in a few different countries but am glad to be back in the UK for the time being.

I’ve been playing guitar now for 14 years and try to practice daily, I also try to cook something new each week (which is sometimes turns out great and sometimes goes so badly wrong!).

Always on the lookout for something new; I’ve spent some time in the Army Reserves and also work as Engineering Programme Director for the Young Engineer Programme where we introduce young students to a range of STEM careers and opportunities.

When we get a new project, I start with a desk study. This means I research the site by looking at historical and geological maps, academic articles, results of previous investigations, and much more! Then build a ground model, which is my interpretation of the earth, what the soil and rock is doing, what is the groundwater doing, what are the characteristics of the site…

Part of a ground model. Rosenthal, P. et al. (2013).

After this, I go to the site (wherever in the world that might be) and conduct a “walkover survey” looking at the area for anything we didn’t see on the maps. After this, I design a ground investigation where we poke holes in the ground with some rather large drilling rigs, taking samples of the soil and rock to test in laboratories.

Supervising a ground investigation.

Excavations in the desert.

This information is used to design railways, roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, and absolutely any structure which meets the ground! Unless it floats, you need a geologist or geotechnical engineer to say where/how you can build.

Any scientist or engineer will tell you that the key to creating a solution, is understanding the problem. The trouble is, most of what I need to know to do my job is hidden underground; this means that I spend a lot of time trying to piece together lots of little bits of information to form the bigger picture. So most of my day-to-day is taken up by thinking about the information I have, constructing an interpretation of the ground conditions based on that data, and also trying to figure out what else I need to know!

The projects I work on are all quite big, this means they are never simple or straightforwards. Any decision I make not only has to be the right one for me, but also for a whole host of other scientists and engineers, so I spend a lot of my day talking to environmental scientists, ecologists, archaeologists, utilities (water, power, gas etc) engineers, making sure that what I ask my contractors to do is also the right move for everyone else. This also means that I spend a lot of time learning about what they do, which is always so interesting.