• Question: What is your job as a scientist and what thing do you study

    Asked by anon-253622 on 7 May 2020. This question was also asked by anon-253621.
    • Photo: Josh Wolstenholme

      Josh Wolstenholme answered on 7 May 2020:

      I’m currently working part-time doing my PhD and part-time as a research assistant on a project called THYME. In my PhD, I look at how more sustainable flood management methods change geomorphology in a river (how the river looks, moves sediment and creates habitats) through using survey equipment like a laser scanner and drones. This allows me to try to recreate the river in a computer model, so we can look at how effective the flood management methods are, and if they’b be more effective if there were more, or in different places.

      As a research assistant on THYME, I look for data online on things like population, carbon dioxide emissions, and where airports and ports are in the Hull, York and Teesside areas. My job is to map these so we can get a better understanding of what the bioeconomy (read: anything to do with biotechnology like farming, waste processing, plastic processing) looks like.

    • Photo: Amber Madden-Nadeau

      Amber Madden-Nadeau answered on 18 May 2020:

      I am a final year PhD student and volcanologist. Specifically, I study the 1883 eruption of Krakatau (Indonesia) which killed approximately 36,000 people. It is important to understand the magmatic processes ongoing beneath the ground prior to an eruption so that we can monitor these volcanoes better in future.

    • Photo: Michelle Valkanas

      Michelle Valkanas answered on 19 May 2020:

      My current job is a graduate researcher as I work towards obtaining a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences. I study bioremediation which is the process of using something living to remediate or clean. I specifically look at ways to use bacteria to remove pollution from water.

    • Photo: Steve Wroe

      Steve Wroe answered on 19 May 2020:

      My work in Antarctica was to travel across an area of Antarctica and to measure the true shape of the continent beneath a mile thick glacier.

      Although the glacier that I’m travelling on may seem quite flat, a mile below that, the ground below may have hidden mountains and valleys and it was that which I was mapping.

      I used a range of scientific instruments, including a Proton Magnetometer and gravity meter.

      I would be travelling over an area of Antarctica using a dog team of 9 huskies and a sledge which carried my tent, food and equipment. I would be working away from base (where I lived) for a period of up to 6 weeks when I would be living in a tent. I hope that this answers your question.

    • Photo: Gareth Mason

      Gareth Mason answered on 10 Jun 2020:

      My job as an Environment Ranger is essentially the same as an Ecologist, which is someone who works in the environment/conservation sectors. I specialise in forestry. I finished my studies a few years ago, but went to college for a Forestry qualification, and university for an Environmental Science degree.

    • Photo: Natasha Scott

      Natasha Scott answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      I am an Engineering Geologist, which means that I study what the soil and rock of a certain area of made of and if it is natural, man-made or affected by pollution. First I will examine the material, make notes of what it is (for example the average soil could described be brown slightly gravelly fine to coarse sand with occasional fragments of plastic), take samples of material and any water. We are mainly looking to see if there is anything in the ground (natural or man-made) which will affect anything built on the ground, such as acids from old industrial sites or coal from the railways.

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