Profile

The Earth’s core (and those of other terrestrial planets) is made mainly of iron. I use computer simulations to calculate the properties of iron, and iron alloys, in order to find out what happens when you heat them up to 6000 degrees and squash them to 3.5 million times atmospheric pressure. On a computer I set up a box of atoms (see below) and calculate the energetics of the atoms, from which many useful properties can be worked out. The only real observations of the Earth’s core come from seismic waves propagating through the Earth after earthquakes. My job is to try to find materials with calculated velocities which match those from seismology. When we get this right, we will know something about the composition and evolution of the Earth and other planets, such as Mercury pictured below.

Before children (BC) I would work on my calculations pretty much all day, dipping in and out of the computer until bedtime. After children, my day has been transformed such that my work day is contracted to pretty much 9:30-5, sometimes less if I have to pick them up early. Also, my “maturity” means that I now have people who do the work for me, so I spend most of my day telling other people what to do (including getting my fab PhD student, Amy, to build a papier mache model of mercury! (she’s holding it below)). I also teach a couple of courses (maths and geophysics), write journal articles, write grants (to get the money to pay the people I tell what to do) and, this year in particular, I have spent a lot of time doing outreach activities, both here at UCL and in schools – so a typical day is never the same. On top of this, I do quite a lot of travelling to conferences, workshops, etc.; recently I have been to China, Japan, USA, France, Italy….. But the actual research is computer-based. And because I spend a lot of time in front of a computer, I have a walking desk! It can move up and down so that I can sit, stand or walk on a treadmill while I work !!