About me

Current Research

I am currently employed as a Seismic Hazard Scientist at Geoscience Australia (GA). GA is Australia’s national geoscientific research agency, providing the nation’s earthquake monitoring capabilities, and national seismic hazard research. More information about GA’s earthquake research is available here: https://www.community-safety.ga.gov.au/hazards/earthquake
 
As a Seismic Hazard Scientist, my work involves trying to understand the shaking and ground offset hazard posed by earthquakes across the Australian continent. The Seismic Hazard team at GA publish the Nationals Seismic Hazard Assessment which informs shaking hazard design, and emergency management plans. 

Past Research & Education

Postdoctoral researcher – Oxford University / COMET

Between 2020 – 2023 I was employed as a postdoctoral research assistant in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. I was part of the Earthquakes and Active Tectonics research group, working as part of COMET (Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics) to investigate active faults through Central Asia using a combination of field-based, seismological, and remote-sensing techniques.

PhD – University of Melbourne

I completed my PhD at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne focusing on historic Australian surface ruptures and geological damage due to near-source strong ground motions. My thesis included a systematic review of historic Australian surface rupturing earthquakes, where I digitised historic data and provided new data-sets for use in hazard and scaling relationships. I also conducted a study on co-seismically displaced geological objects, which record co-seismic strong ground motion directionality in the absence of near-field instrumental records. Finally, my thesis presented field and drone based mapping of the 2016 Mw 6.1 Petermann earthquake in Central Australia, documenting a lack of evidence for a penultimate event on this fault, and near-field environmental damage.

My PhD was supervised by Associate Professor Mark Quigley and Professor Mike Sandiford, within a team of PhD and masters students also studying landscape effects of earthquakes, modelling earthquake sequences and understanding earthquake hazards through time in both inter-and intraplate settings.

Masters – University of Melbourne

My Masters thesis research was conducted with Dr Steve Boger and Professor Janet Hergt on the tectonic and metamorphic history of the Aileu Formation on the north coast of Timor Leste, using whole rock geochemistry and U/Pb dating of zircon and titanite. This work was part of an ongoing relationship between a research team at the School of Earth Sciences led by Mike Sandiford and the Timorese government.

Bachelor – University of Melbourne

I completed my undergraduate science degree at the University of Melbourne between 2009 – 2011, and spent my final semester on exchange at the University of Glasgow. I received a major in Geology, but also completed courses in surveying, GIS and modern history.

Science Outreach

From 2017 to 2020 I worked as an instructor for She Maps, a company dedicated to building confidence in STEM subjects using drones as a platform for learning. I’ve traveled extensively across the country teaching students and teachers in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin, Cairns, Dubbo, Alice Springs, Katherine, and a week in the remote community of Yiyili, Western Australia. This work allows me to engage with community groups and schools to share my research, and to promote diversity in STEM to a broad range of people. I enjoy the challenge of communicating my science and the importance of diversity across different age, gender and cultural groups, and through different mediums such as print media, blogs, videos, TV, radio, and presentations.

Personal

I was born and raised in Katherine, Northern Territory, a remote town with a population of ~ 7,000 about 300 km south-east of Darwin. I attended public primary and high schools in Katherine, taking multiple senior subjects via correspondence with schools in Adelaide and Darwin. This remote, small-town upbringing taught me valuable lessons in respect and communication with a diverse range of people and cultures, and a love for the remote Australian landscapes and ecosystems.

In 2015 I moved to Yogyakarta in central Java, Indonesia, where my partner was working in the Australian Volunteers for International Development program as a post disaster shelter expert. We lived in a small village on the outskirts of the city, working, raising ducklings, and learning Indonesian. Living on the edge of Indonesia’s most active volcano (Mount Merapi) in an area devastated by a 2006 earthquake (Bantul), I learnt a lot about the disconnect between scientists studying natural hazards, and communities living with the reality of natural hazards.

In March 2020 we moved to the UK, a week before the covid-19 lockdowns started in England. Trying to make the most of a bad situation, we spent time exploring the countryside learning about UK flora (for fruit and mushroom foraging purposes!), kayaking on the River Thames and Cherwell, and adventuring around England, Wales and Scotland in our micro-camper van. 

In late 2023 we returned to Australia and I took up my position with Geoscience Australia.