Profile

My name is Helena, I’m 33 years old and my pronouns are she/her.  I live in Huddersfield with my partner, Ash, and our dog, Riley.

When I’m not at work I enjoy walking with my boys, and cooking tasty food. My favourite food to cook at the moment is ravioli (I got a pasta machine for Christmas…).

I enjoy travelling and last year we went on holiday to Japan. I’m keen to go back and explore some more as soon as we’re allowed to.

The lab I work in specialises in Sedimentology and Fluid Dynamics. The research in the lab is mostly done by people studying for their PhD, or researchers who already have their PhD.

The research the lab specialises in uses flume tanks, which we set up so they mimic a real life problem. Then we use complex instrumentation, and sometimes lasers!, to try to understand what is going on.

For example, the image below is from a particulate density current, and helps us to understand how landslides and other debris/gravity currents will flow. This helps to make planning for extreme events like landslides more accurate.

We also do research into fluid dynamics. These projects can be more theoretical and help to make the equations used more accurate.

I am also manage the SSPAL lab which has instruments which can tell you the size and shape of particles from 0.0000001cm to 1cm. We look at samples from rivers, deep ocean cores and samples taken from the lab experiments to help us understand what’s happening.

I get up and head into the lab. My day can be very varied depending on the types of projects which are running in the lab.

If I’m helping to build a new project this means me and my boss will be creating a new experiment based upon a scientific principle. We will use a tank which is specially made by the workshop at the University and then we will add the plumbing required for the fluids. We will then build a framework around the tank to hold all of the cameras and instruments required to make it work. As you can see from the picture below, sometimes we need ALOT of equipment.

During the day we will add each bit of equipment, checking to make sure it’s all working as expected. This can take a really long time as everything is very complicated and needs to be very precisely set up to work properly.

Sometimes I’m showing new lab users how to use their equipment.

This means I will go through all of the different elements of an experiment with the lab user. Sometimes this will just take a couple of hours and then they can get on with the work themselves. The picture before is one of our previous PhD students, Issy de Cala, who is using an instrument which shot you the size and shape of particles.

Sometimes I get to go out on fieldwork and collect samples outside. This is usually because someone wants to know what types of sediment there are in the rivers near them, To do this we collect samples of the river water and the river bed, and then analyse them to find out.

Sometimes I need to do all the paperwork which allows the lab to keep running effectively.