"…I became fascinated by the unsung role that bacteria play in recycling the earth's resources…"

Born in Exeter, Devon, UK, 1962

B.Sc. Applied Biology

University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, Cardiff. 1985

Ph.D.Microbial Ecology - Growth and productivity of coastal and deep sea sediment bacteria.

University of Wales College of Cardiff. 1990

Research Associate in the University of Bristol Geology

Investigating the role of bacteria in the preservation of fossil biomarkers.

Schlumberger Dowell Drilling fluids microbiologist/ecotoxicologist.

Set up in house ecotoxicology lab.

Product Development Team Manager for the Green Alternatives drilling fluids project.

I grew up in the country and always enjoyed messing about in streams and ponds. My father was a biological sciences teacher and is a very keen trout fisherman. I am certain that some of his interests must have rubbed off on me as I have always been fascinated by what makes things tick and how they interact with their environment. My hobbies and interests tend to be, on or in water, be it fishing, showing my children where to find crabs in rock pools at low tide or climbing frozen water (snow and ice covered mountains!) a passion which I discovered soon after crashing a hang glider at University!

When I studied biology at University I became fascinated by the unsung role that bacteria play in recycling the earth's resources and the way that they can effect the environment. This led me to a PhD on the growth and productivity of bacteria in shallow and deepwater marine sediment. It is well known that these layers can contain upto 1X10¹² cells per cm³ (1,000,000,000,000 cells/ml) but what is not so well known is what they are doing there, as against what they are doing when isolated and grown in a test-tube and at what rate. This may not seem earth shattering but it is fundamental when you are trying to understand the role of bacteria in things like global warming, especially if you consider that 70% of the earth's surface is covered by seawater and hence marine sediments. Another fascinating part of this work was looking at bacteria in sediment layers 500 meters below the sea floor. It was originally thought that apart from in oil reservoirs that bacterial life and thus the biosphere only extended a few tens of meters below the earth's surface, now we know differently although we still can't explain how they got there or have survived for so long in sediments millions of years old!

Following this I spent 3 years as a Research Associate in the Geomicrobiology group at Bristol University working in close collaboration with the Organic Geochemistry Unit of the Chemistry Department looking at the role of bacteria in the preservation of fossilised molecules (biomarkers) used to estimate sea surface temperatures back through time (palaeo-climatology).

I joined Schlumberger 6 years ago as a microbiologist/ecotoxicologist, my first task being to set up an ecotoxicology laboratory where, early in the product development cycle, we could evaluate the environmental performance of new drilling fluid products and make sure that we were only developing suitable new materials. This job also included providing technical support on all aspects of drilling fluids and the environment as well as studying ways that bacteria and biotechnology can be applied to drilling fluids and the oilfield.

Most recently I was a Product Development Team Leader investigating the use of 'green' chemistries for drilling fluid applications, our task being the replacement of some of the commonly used toxic or persistent, poorly biodegradable, oilfield chemicals.