Profile

I have lived and worked in America and Canada as well as the UK.

I use to play lots of basketball and coach junior teams. With these sports clubs, we even hosted lots of basketball tournaments and undertook world record attempts while raising funds for charities!

My hobbies now include walking, knitting, growing plants, time with my cat and eating cake!

My work on rocks from space involves looking at the under microscopes, using lasers and similar while studying the bits they are made of.

To reveal the otherwise hidden parts of the extraterrestrial histories of space rocks, I use specialist approaches in laboratories to digest them in acid. Powerful measurements can be made using very special types of what we call mass spectrometry instruments.

I led a special expedition as a National Geographic Explorer to a mountainous part of New Zealand that people are not normally allowed to visit. This adventure on the other side of the world enabled us to retrieve some very special rocks.

As a hobby I am working on book projects that share science. These interests include science story telling for children with illustrations by a very talented artist of space.

I also organise meetings that bring lots of scientist together from all over the world to share their discoveries. These scientists and thinkers can then have exciting discussions and exchange new ideas so that we reach a fresh understanding together.