• At school I did A level Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
• I did my first degree at the University of Nottingham - BSc, Botany. I then went to the University of Aston in Birmingham and did an MSc in the Biology of Water Management.

My first job was a Field Studies Council tutor in Ecology. I then moved into the water industry as a freshwater biologist until I took time out to bring up my two daughters. I took the opportunity at that point to gain a Further Education Teachers Certificate which has being very useful in my career to date. Once my daughters were established at school, I resumed my career in a new direction at Monks Wood (formerly ITE, now CEH) mainly to do with manipulating data into information. I was involved in some major projects including developing a European Habitat classification for the European Environment Agency and a project resulting in the publication of a book on Fish Distribution in the UK. At the end of 2002 I was moved to the River Ecology section of the same organisation in Dorset where my main role was data management although I continued to travel abroad for meetings and workshops. Following a further restructuring of CEH, I have been moved to our Wallingford site, and have a role as an ILO in the newly-formed Environmental Information Data Centre. I am based in a section where the science includes freshwater ecology, hydrology and hydrochemistry.

A major influence in my choice of career and organisation to work for is a love of the science and my role plus the flexibility and variability of work offered by CEH.

I enjoy working alongside research scientists and contributing to their outputs. I have some influence on the development of new policies and procedures to improve CEH’s overall science capabilities and work as part of both the team of scientists and as part of the EIDC/ILO team. I really enjoy training others to learn new skills. I currently only get to travel within the UK but that can be interesting. I have no direct line management responsibility but guide a large number of people in their informatics responsibilities.

Get a broad base of knowledge of an area of science.

As well as a broad knowledge base a more detailed understanding of an area of science is a distinct advantage. A thorough grounding in some aspect of computing/technology is useful. You need to have good inter-personal skills as much of the work involves influencing others and encouraging good practice.

I’ve always had a love of freshwater and one of my earliest memories is of falling into Lake Windermere as a small child when I was trying to catch the animal life in the water to see what was there. I also enjoy pond-dipping and mini-beast hunting with groups of small children or adults and seeing the look of wonder on their faces when they discover the miniature and hidden world around them. My hobbies include music (singing, and playing the tuba) and English folk dance both of which I get to do when on holidays with the Folk Camp Society.