Field work experience
I have been doing environmental science field work since the late 1990s such as looking at the effect of Trichloroacetic Acid on spruce trees and seedling in Peebles, Scotland and working as a laboratory technician at the Leibnitz Institute for Baltic Research including cruises and as a field assistant on the Arctic Ocean 2001 Oden expedition with the Swedish Polar secretariat and later as an atmospheric chemist at Leicester University and Imperial College London.
Here I will show some photos to give you an idea of the different field work I have done (starting with our field work in January 2022 on the Chilean coast, monitoring Particulate Matter in Coyhaique in 2019 and then back to my most exciting field work in the Arctic and Antarctic in 2001 and 2004 and to my MChem and PhD projects in the UK and Ireland.
Field work in Chile (Coyhaique, Baños Morales and Quintero) (2019- 2022)
Arctic field work (marine chemistry) (2001)
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Field work near an industrial zone west of Santiago in January 2022 (with portable black carbon and Particulate Matter measurements in mobile measurements (see article in Spanish)
Measurements of metals in dust
near Calama (Atacama)
Water quality measurements in the River Volcán in Baños Morales
Cerro Tres Puntas meteorology station (only accessible with touring skis during the Pandemic)
Particulate Matter measurements with walking experiments in Coyhaique, Patagonia
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Arctic Ocean expedition on Oden in 2001
Ice breaker Oden at the North pole
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Kiel Insitu Pumps (KISP) to filter the sea water for POP testing
The Persistent Organic Pollutant team
Ice bugs team taking ice cores and sampling brine for micro-orgasms
Ice melter to be filled to melt ice for POP analysis
Ice bugs team sorting the cores
Antarctic field work (atmospheric chemistry) (2004/2005)
I was a PhD student on the measurement of peroxy radicals in remote environments (Ireland and UK)
Then used the same technique as a Post doctoral researcher researching the effect of sunlight on the absorption and retention of nitrogen gases in the snowpack at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS)'s Halley research station. I was at the old Halley station whose details you can see here.
Halley research station on the Brunt ice shelf
The CHABLIS field team (from BAS, Leeds University, the University of East Anglia and Imperial College London)
Snow pit digging
The PERCA instruments to measure peroxy radicals
Snow blowing experiments
The Earnest Shakleton, our transport to and from the continent
Snow bloack experiments
The Happy sledge - bulk travel
Emperor penguin colony
Supplying the laboratories with compressed gases
The more sustainable way to travel to work
Alternative accomodation
PhD project work in Ireland and the UK (2001-2004)
MChem project work in Peebles, Scotland (1999)
Measurement of the effect of Trichloroacetic acid on trees in Peebles, Scotland
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Field work with the PERCA instrument in Weybourne, Norfolk, England and Mace Head, Ireland. Photo in my thesis, showing field work can be fun and sociable too
Publications involving peroxy radical measurement with the PERCA technique
Peroxy radical measurements help us to understand the effect of sunlight, NO2 and Volatile Organic Pollutants (VOCs) on ozone formation. They last a few seconds so measuring them involves creating a chain reaction cycle of the radicals with known amounts of CO and NO gases in a reaction chamber. NO2 is measured using chemiluminescence. Here is a short summary of peroxy and hydroxyl radicals in the atmosphere.
Fleming, Z.L., Monks, P.S., Rickard, A.R., Heard, D.E., Still, T., Sommariva, R., Pilling, M.J., Morgan, R., Green, T.J., Brough, N., Penkett, S.A., Lewis, A.C., Lee, J.D., Saiz-Lopez, A., Plane, J.M.C.: Peroxy radical chemistry and the control of ozone photochemistry at Mace Head, Ireland during the summer of 2002, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 6, 2193-2214, 2006
Lee, J. D., Lewis, A.C., Monks, P.S., Jacob, M., Fleming, Z.L., Hamilton, J., Hopkins, J.R., Watson, N., Saxton, J.E., Ennis, C., Carpenter, L.J., Carslaw, N., Bandy, B., Oram, D.E., Penkett, S.A., Slemr, J., Norton, E., Rickard, A.R., Whalley, L.K., Heard, D.E., Bloss, W.J., Gravestock, T., Smith, S.C., Stanton, J., Pilling, M.J., Jenkin, M.E.: Ozone photochemistry and elevated isoprene during the UK heatwave of august 2003, Atmospheric Environment, 40, 7598-7613, 2006
My PhD thesis. The measurement of peroxy radicals in the marine boundary layer using the perca technique, University of Leicester, 2005.