"We live in a technology-orientated society, so being a scientist gives you the opportunity to take an active part in the future!"

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Karen Spenley

Born in Chester, UK, 1972

B.A. in Mechanical Engineering

Cambridge University

M.Eng in Mechanical Engineering

Cambridge University, 1996

Fields of work

Engineering, recruiting

Areas of interest outside work

Sports, Photograph, Travel

I was born in Chester, England in 1972. Chester started out as the ancient Roman city of Deva and is arguably the richest city in Britain for archaeological and architectural treasures, preserved to this day from the time of the Roman occupation.

We left Chester when I was 4 and I grew up in different places in the North West of England but my family harks back to the Lake District, one of the prettiest regions in the UK.

After high school I participated in a scheme called "A Year in Industry" which places prospective engineering students in their gap year before University into companies to work on projects and get a head start on their engineering career. This was great for two main reasons, firstly to confirm your interest in engineering since it is not something studied in school, and secondly to earn money to be able to survive college!

I worked for a company called Nuclear Electric on an acoustic ranging clearance system for safety shutdown pipework in nuclear power stations.

At the end of my year out, I entered my design project into the Young Engineers for Britain competition and placed 1st in the North West and 2nd in the National finals. Not bad for my first year in engineering!

After this I went to Cambridge University, to Queens' College to study Engineering. Cambridge has a great program where the first 2 years of the course are general engineering, so you study all of Environmental, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics, Thermo, etc etc. Then after that you specialise and do your Masters. I chose the Mechanical route specialising in Fluids and Vibrations. Each summer I did an internship with Nuclear Electric where I gained more experience in plant design, building and maintenance.

In my final year we did a design and research project with industry and hence started my career with Schlumberger. My project was based around the acoustic properties of seismic marine cables. These are used to record the acoustic reflections of sound waves off the different formation layers of the earth. The reflections are used to determine the underground structure and hence the likelihood of oil. My experimental work was done in Norway and my theoretical work in Cambridge, and so I was introduced straight away to the worldwide culture of SLB.
When I graduated, I joined Schlumberger at their product center in Rosharon, Texas. Here I worked on perforating guns that are controlled, directional explosives used to gain access to the formation and allow the oil to flow easier.

After 2 1/2 years in this area I moved to another product center in the Houston area to work on directional drilling tools. These tools are steerable motors that drill a well in the direction required to provide a well that will produce the most oil.

So having spent nearly 7 years working on Schlumberger oilfield tools, I decided to take a position that would give me exposure to the more corporate side of the company. Today I am the Recruiting, Training and Development Manager for two of our centers in the Houston area. This involves recruiting our engineers of the future and developing those we have today.

Outside of Schlumberger, I enjoy travelling the US which provides me with a great outlet to enjoy one of my other hobbies of photography.