Profile

I live in York with my dog, Copernica. We both moved here from the US so sometimes we speak/bark in a funny accent. In my free time, I like to bake elaborate cakes (which makes me pretty popular at work sometimes).

Aerosol particles emitted into the atmosphere from things like road traffic or wildfires can have massive effects on climate and human health. These effects are dependent on the particles’ size (e.g. smaller particles can reach sensitive ares of the lungs when inhaled) and composition (e.g. transparent particles won’t block as much sunlight as dark ones), so it’s important that we have methods to measure a wide range of particle properties both when they are emitted and after they’ve spent some time floating through the air. My job is to design, develop, and test new tools to measure aerosol particles in new ways. We can learn a lot of information by looking at how the articles interact with light, so I often use lasers and state-of-the-art cameras to look at things like how the particles scatter light in order to quickly and effectively learn about these particles and how they can change as they “age”. Hopefully, by improving our understanding of aerosol pollution, we can make more informed decisions about how best to work toward better lifestyles that do not cause so much harm to the planet or the people on it.

I don’t think any scientist has a “typical” day – that’s why our jobs are so much fun! I spend quite a bit of time writing. Sometimes, it’s grant proposals to pitch new ideas to a group of experienced scientists. I love this part because I can be creative and come up with new ideas! Other times, I work on papers to tell other scientists about the things I’ve learned. I also spend quite a bit of time in the laboratory building and testing new instruments – or training my PhD student how to do this for their project. Our work usually involves a mixture of plumbing, optics, electrical engineering, coding, and machining.