Profile

I live in a flat in Bristol with my partner. We volunteer for a cat rescue charity so we often have a little foster cat staying with us 😻

Outside of work, I love reading and playing video games, usually Science-Fiction stories set in the future (I also love Doctor Who!)

I’ve recently started trying some new hobbies. I take street dance classes 💃🏻 and I am trying out rock climbing 🧗🏻.

I love living in Bristol because it’s a really fun city with lots to do. It’s close enough to Wales that we can drive into the Welsh countryside at the weekend for a hike, or even climb some mountains!

I work at a consultancy, which means we help other companies with their trickiest science and engineering problems. A lot of my work is for nuclear power plants (see me standing in front of one below!).

These have loads of science challenges, and my area is around the metals used for reactor components. I make sure that the metals used are strong enough to hold the forces produced while the plant generates electricity. We also have to check that the metals wont get weaker or rust during the whole life of the plant – often over 50 years! I really enjoy working on nuclear power as it is super interesting and challenging, and it is also a low-carbon source of electricity!

I also work on renewable electricity technology such as wind. I did a project around new materials for wind turbines, so that future turbines can be bigger and bigger. This means the materials have to be very strong, BUT also very light. This is a very interesting science challenge.

I presented my project on wind turbine materials at a conference last year. It was a bit scary presenting in front of people, but it was really fun to share my work with other scientists and engineers. Attending conferences is a great way scientists can share ideas with other people.

(Pic copyright Phil Tragen 2022)

I also get the chance to visit engineering sites as part of my job. Recently, I got to go to France and visit a factory producing big bits of equipment for a nuclear power station. It was really cool to see stuff from my computer calculations in real life!

I get to travel quite a lot with my job, often to France because it has a lot of nuclear power. I am part of a UK-France scheme for women in the nuclear industry. I got to visit London and Paris to see their embassies (the offices where the French government works in the UK, and where the UK government works in France).

My job allows ‘hybrid working’ which means I can choose whether to work from home or from the office on any given day. However, I like going into the office because there’s more space and it’s nice to work near my team. I also like cycling into town in the morning – it’s a great start to the day!

My work is mostly on my computer, but is still very different every day! Some days I will be focused on calculations around materials or forces, but other days I will be on the phone with my team to plan future projects.

When I work with other companies, to help them with their problems, I often go and work with the people in their offices. About once a week, I drive up to another company office to meet the people I’m working with.