After finishing my Master of Physics (MPhys) degree at the University of Durham in 2018, I completed a 4-year PhD in Astrophysics at University College London (UCL), funded by the Royal Astronomical Society. While studying, I also acted as a Director for the Kirkaldy Testing Museum in Southwark, which housed a 116-ton Universal Testing Machine, designed by David Kirkaldy in 1863. In my role, I gave tours, demonstrations and co-authored a book called "Facts Not Opinions", which was sold at the Museum. As a result of this work, in 2018 I was awarded the Freedom of the City of London for servitude to the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers. This experience with scientific instrumentation carried over into my PhD, where I analysed data mainly obtained from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. My work focussed primarily on main-sequence galaxy evolution and how molecular gas dynamics acts as a regulator for star-formation as a galaxy evolves (for more detail see this page). I had the pleasure of collaborating with some amazing teams across the world during my project, including The SAMI Galaxy Survey and the ALMaQUEST survey.

When starting my PhD at UCL and coming back to London from Durham in 2018, the movement Extinction Rebellion (XR) had brought the climate crisis into the news like I had never seen before. I was shocked that, despite studying a science for so long, no one had ever presented the climate crisis as so urgent and irreversible. Using the skills I'd learnt as a scientist, I found that these protestors were right and my view of the world was changed forever. From 2018, I became increasing involved with XR, first locally and then joining the sister group Scientists for Extinction Rebellion (S4XR). Being a member of S4XR has had me speaking in front of hundreds of people to creating artwork that has been used across the world. It also gave me the opportunity to use my scientific background to offer outreach to communities, schools and online workshops. I learnt that I have an ability to speak with authority, and impart knowledge in a way that people find meaningful. Along with this talent for communicating, I also found a love for combining my scientific background with my passion for art.

All my experiences during my PhD project made me realise that my path in life may not be in academia. I found it personally difficult to be a member of the scientific community when so many scientists choose to remain silent on the urgency of the climate crisis and, in some cases, penalise those who choose to speak up. I also knew that my path needed a little more creativity. I spent a year learning how to create animations that I could live-stream and learning how to create vitual environments in Unreal Engine 5, with the ultimate aim of creating Tales from the Fray. Creating this world of short stories with viewer interaction has been a concept I'd played with for a while. Creating this idea is truly the culmination of my work so far, and I'd love you to come along for the ride with me!