Profile

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Alex Dickson

My CV

  • Education:

    I went to St Bernards Convent School in Slough, Berkshire. I was taught by nuns!

  • Qualifications:

    I gained 10 GCSEs when I was 16, 4 A-levels at age 18, and then went on to study for a degree in Geography at Durham, an MSc in Quaternary Geology at Royal Holloway, and a PhD at University College London.

  • Work History:

    I worked for 3 years as a post-doctoral scientist at the Open University in glamorous Milton Keynes, before taking up a 5 year post as a research fellow at Oxford University.

  • Current Job:

    I joined Royal Holloway as a lecturer in 2017.

  • About Me:

    I am a lecturer in Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway and live in sunny Berkshire!

  • Read more

    I live in Berkshire with my 8 year old son, Arthur, my wife and my dog, Flossie. I enjoy taking Arthur for bike rides, running, watching and playing cricket, and rolling my eyes when my wife sings Disney songs.

  • Read more

    My research involves taking rocks and sediments, and carefully extracting chemical signals from them that record what the world looked and felt like at the time they formed. This is a very tricky job to do, as I deal with very very very tiny amounts of sample that can get spoiled if even a tiny bit of dust falls on them!

    I usually use samples that were drilled from the seafloor by a scientific ship. These sediments were laid down on the seafloor many thousands (or even millions!) of years ago and are a ‘time machine’ to understand what the world was like before humans existed. I also get my samples from rocks we can visit on land, and have travelled to places like Italy, Oman, China and the USA to visit important geologically sites.

    Measuring my samples in the lab is both exciting and difficult. To protect them form contamination, I have to wear a lab ‘onesy’ to completely cover my clothes and head, and have to wear protective gloves and goggles to protect me from the dangerous acids I use to dissolve the samples. Lab work can be both exciting and a bit dangerous! I also get excited by measuring my samples on a machine called a mass spectrometer. It allows me to measure tiny tiny tiny tiny amounts of material (just a few atoms). To do this, we suck out all the air from the inside of the machine so that it is as empty as outer space!

     

     

  • My Typical Day:

    I start my day by answering questions on email that my students have sent to me. Then, I might spend the morning working in the laboratory, doing important jobs such as weighing samples or doing some tricky chemistry with them, or more often doing simple jobs like cleaning the lab.

    I then spend the afternoon working on scientific papers, preparing my teaching, or talking to research students who are learning how to be scientists themselves.

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Friendly, modest, curious

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      I had no idea!

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      I had a detention 2 days after starting secondary school but was perfect after that ;)

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      I have lots and wouldn't want to choose

      What's your favourite food?

      Depends on my mood: curry or pizza are always good

Questions answered by Alex

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