Profile

I am a palaeobotanist. This means that I work with fossil plants, usually that grew millions of years ago. I also work with plants that are alive today and I conduct experiments on living plants to try to interpret changes that we see in fossil plants. I put the living plants into different experimental treatments, for example with higher carbon dioxide or temperature than today, and see what happens to the plants. Then I look at the fossils and see if the same thing can be seen in the fossils. I also work on how plants respond to natural pollutants such as volcanic gases and changes in light quality.

There is really no such thing as a typical day for an academic scientist. For most of the last two weeks I was teaching on fieldtrips in North Yorkshire, before that I was in Colorado for a big conference and for the next few weeks I’ll be spending more time in the office and lab.

When I’m in my office I am usually reading scientific papers and analysing data or writing a paper. This is where scientists write about their experiments and then try to publish their findings for other scientists to read about – it’s a hugely important part of our job. I also write my lectures in my office and prepare for classes, another hugely important part of the job. Writing lectures takes a lot of time too, so when I’m lecturing, I spend lots of time in my office.

At the moment, I am trying to finish up an experiment where I see how plants use carbon differently when they are grown in different atmospheres, so I am also in the lab grinding up leaves into tiny parts so that they can be put into a machine that will then work out how much carbon is in each leaf.