Emma is a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Pathway Principal Investigator, working at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. She is an academic researcher focussed on geothermal and joint inversion. She studied an MSci in Geophysics and then a PhD at the University of Southampton.

Can you give a brief description of what the company/employer does and how your role fits in?

My company is a research institute. It’s similar to a university but we have no undergraduate students so we only do research, no teaching. I work in the geophysics section and my role fits as I am researching how to determine Ireland’s subsurface temperature using geophysical and petrophysical data. This is a geothermal project that will help understand Ireland’s geothermal potential and reduce the risk in exploiting geothermal resources for heating use from new maps of underground temperature with associated uncertainty.

What does a typical day in your working life look like?

No day is the same. Some days I am in an office environment looking at maps and data and other days I will be on fieldwork which involves installing seismic sites which includes solar panels to power seismometers which are scientific instruments that measure the ground vibrations in the Earth, such as earthquakes! Other days I will be discussing the latest geothermal advances with industry and policy makers who advise on Ireland’s energy direction or writing papers to allow others to use my findings.

What was your pathway to what you do for your job now?

I originally did an integrated Masters of Geophysics (MSci, equivalent to a bachelors and masters degree) at the University of Southampton. Between my 2nd and 3rd year I volunteered for a research project locating earthquakes in Ethiopia which was later published. Between my 3rd and 4th year I applied for an internship with ION geophysical, an oil and gas services company, who offered me a job at the end of my 4th year. I worked for them for 2 years but missed research and returned to Southampton for a geophysics PhD again focussing on earthquakes and seismology in the East African Rift to find magma. One thing missing from my PhD was why should the UK tax payer fund this work on the East African Rift? With this in mind, I applied for postdocs focussed on the geothermal energy sector as my skills from imaging magma in Ethiopia were transferable to locating heat sources underground in Great Britain and Ireland. I expanded on this, and created my own project that explores the subsurface heat in more detail and also has a PhD candidate working on the same problems but for geothermal energy in Iceland.

What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career like yours?

Always be curious and learn new things. If there is a job that needs doing, learn the skills to do it by talking to others and asking to work with them even if this takes you outside your comfort zone. There’s no harm in asking and many of the opportunities I have had, came from me writing to someone asking if I could work with them to learn more about their work or the company.