Who am I?

Rather an unanswerable question, so instead I'll describe what I do.

I'm a PhD student at Imperial College in the department of Earth Science and Engineering.  I study ways of improving storage of carbon dioxide in geological formations a long way under the surface of the earth, which is one of many proposals for tackling the threat of globally increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations.  On a daily basis, this involves sitting at a computer trying to write programs to solve a set of equations which describe the fluid flow.  I enjoy the idea that I am contributing something to "saving the planet" but at the moment I'm a bit frustrated by my lack of progress.

The other main part of my life (excluding sleep) is my rowing for Imperial College.  I train 12 times per week on the river Thames and in our boathouse at Putney.  I started rowing at Cambridge 4 years ago and was hooked almost immediately into the sport.  Now it's pretty much got to the point where I feel I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't row, hence the title of this blog.  Rowing gives me physical strength and fitness, mental toughness, empathy, calmness, an ability to learn, space for meditation and an outlet for my energy.  Not to mention a wonderful set of friends :o)

Other things I do: I love learning new languages, more for the links between them than for the actual use of the language.   I find a lot of peace in running and walking.  This summer I am going to try to do more orienteering, and I have signed up for a Life Drawing class starting next week.  I enjoy working with kids so you'll find me there somewhere when volunteering opportunities come up to do science outreach activities!

When I finish my PhD I don't know what I'll do next.  I always imagined myself "being a scientist" but now I'm not sure that's what I want.  The things I have done over the past years that I have enjoyed most were very heavy on communication, for example being captain of the college boat club last year, and being a Science Communicator at the Glasgow Science Centre (hands-on museum for kids - great fun!).  I like being in charge of a large project and working with people.  In academia that is more of a senior job, and you have to work your way up from research before you get that.  Ironically, many academics try to avoid the higher-level administrative jobs as it takes them away from their research.  Perhaps teaching really would be the best option, and it would be great fun, but to some extent I feel it would be a shame not to use my talents to "save the world" more directly rather than by proxy.