Life Beyond the Beaker

  COVID has meant that so many things have gone virtual! Personally, I believe this offers so much more to the public and opens up opportunities that perhaps would not have been there before.  I have been taking the time to do lots of outreach! Recently I have been asked to be involved with a film project with AliEnergy in Argyll to present different STEM roles in Argyll. Argyll is where SAMS is based.  What is STEM ? STEM is SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING & MATHS All of these 4 topics fit into my job role, so as a female they wanted to show that women are doing these roles too, to I suppose make it normal?  Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIeYQskKULA Zoom is a great tool because lots of people can join and it is easy to share a PowerPoint to everyone's screen. There is also a chat function and an icon where you can raise a virtual hand if you would like to speak.  The other great tool is google docs. For example, a shared google do...

  Here Rachel is explaining the type of Airboat that she uses as a wetlands ecologist in the US! I recently had a great chat with Rachel Villani from  Louisiana! We had made contact through Twitter as I had seen back in September that she was doing podcasts on Antarctica and wanted to speak to people that have worked in the field. One of my major goals whilst being within the science world is to communicate what I do and hopefully inspire others. I also think that within the scary online world that there are some fantastic tools out there, one of them being Twitter if you use it in the right way. I use Twitter to keep up to date with the latest science, policies, ideas, and also network. Zoom is also a great tool to have a virtual meeting and Rachel uses it to record her podcasts.  Storytellers of STEMM is the podcast Rachel hosts, " since January 2020. Everyone has a story, and these are the stories of the people in STEMM - their successes, career paths, research, field...

I have been pretty quiet on this blog for the past year! The reason for this is at the end of 2019 I had a few medical issues which resulted in a pretty scary surgery. However, I am now fully fixed, back smiling and hopefully when COVID allows I will get my full ENG1 (seafarers medical) and HSE diving medical back in full. I have been restricted to the UK for the past year!  This last year, I have had a happy time learning how to drive Seol Mara!! https://www.sams.ac.uk/facilities/vessels/   Although I missed out on a few cruises and travels I think it has been really good for me to connect with Scotland properly, as since living here last year was my first summer here! And, being locked down in Scotland this summer during COVID has resulted in lots of networking, learning and an epic amount of Citizen Science interaction! So all things happen for a reason, right? Which brings me onto my second reason for being quiet, whilst also going through my medical issues my boss Prof Da...