Age: 25

A-Levels: Geography, Biology & Economics

Degree: BEng Civil Engineering, University of Surrey

Alex helps provide access to safe, clean water supplies in developing countries. Passionate about motorbikes and rides around on a pink Kawasaki.

My job is...
I am doing a PhD in community water supply in the developing world. My aim is to help provide access to safe, clean water supplies, which will reduce up to 80% of diseases that can occur in a community.

Home is...
At the moment, I'm living in Oval, London in a very cool art deco type of apartment with my flatmate Andrew. He's in marketing and gets to travel as much as I do. We often miss each other with so much coming and going but always find time to catch up over a beer at our local pub every few weeks.

Story so far
I never had any idea that I would end up going to university. I left school with a handful of mediocre A-Levels and moved to London to work in a nightclub. After not seeing daylight for nine months, I realised I hadn't done anything great except partying – so I decided to go to university.
I wanted to be able to create things and to see the physical results, and at first I had my eye fixed on Formula 1. I managed to get some work experience with the Williams team and a place on an engineering foundation course at Cranfield University. Although I loved it, I really wanted a career involving travel, so I switched to Surrey to study Civil Engineering. Not having Maths A-Level made it quite hard, but I managed to graduate with excellent grades. I was then offered the chance to research community water supplies for the World Health Organisation – for me, the opportunity of a lifetime!

Day in the Life
Tricky one this, there's so many different things to do for a PhD. If I'm in England then there'll be times I have to do some office work. So I'll take my motorbike for a ride in the morning and normally arrive about 10ish. I'll spend the morning checking my emails and reading any new articles that have been sent to me by water publications. Then I'll track down my elusive supervisor, Brian, to catch up and exchange notes on progress and any new ideas either of us have had. The rest of the day will be spent with the other water PhD students, writing up any new research we've discovered and debating whether we think it's right or not or training relief agencies that work in the developing world to use water testing and purifying equipment. About 5pm or 6pm, I'll get back on my bike and catch some bends on the A3 as I head home. Depending on how tired I am or how hectic the next day's going to be, I'll either settle in with my flatmate to watch a few episodes of 24 (Andrew's a bit of a fan and owns the box set) or I'll go out for a few drinks with some mates or my boyfriend.

Pet project
At the moment I'm trying to work the human aspects of engineering into my PhD. Although the technology's the most important part of what I do, we often find that trying to train people from other culture's how to use it very difficult. 
Most of the technology we use at a community level is very simple but does require maintenance. If we don't train local's to look after their own supply, pumps quickly break and any clean water that people do manage to get will become dirty because of the containers that the water's put into. It's been found that the best people to look after the water supply in a lot of developing countries are the women in the community. Although the men are considered the boss a lot of the time, they often don't have any incentive to fix broken pumps or tap-stands. The women will then be forced to walk for miles to get water, which probably isn't clean either. So if the women are trained at the beginning of the project, they can fix the pumps themselves. The time saved by having a water pump close by means that women and children who normally have to get the water, will have time to go to school instead and start getting an education.
Cultural issues are very important in community water supply. A good example is in Indonesia; where over 50% of water projects fail. Huge sums of money are poured into Indonesia trying to provide good quality water, but a lot of the time, the people doing the training don't know that there is no direct translation for the word 'No' in Indonesian. To say no to somebody in Indonesia is considered to be one of the rudest things a person can do, because the culture out there relies on group harmony. There is no money for doctors or mechanics or all the other services that we, in England take for granted, so it is very important that people maintain very good relationships with others within their community. People are born into groups that help and protect them, in return for lifelong loyalty. So, trying to train somebody who always says yes, they understand, when they don't can be very, very difficult.

Freetime
My favorite bit! I absolutely love my motorsports. So, when the season starts, you'll generally find me on my motorbike heading towards a MotoGP or British Superbikes race. I've got a very pretty Kawasaki Ninja ZX6R in pink. My boyfriend, who's got a Honda CBR600, often heads out with me. I also love horse riding but found that trying to finance horses and motorbikes a bit of a strain… the bike won. So, now I just go out for the occasional hack with friends.
I make my own accessories as well. I love going to parties but can't afford to spend a lot of money on clothes (yet!), so I try to use my imagination and make outfits look slightly different with big, ornate necklaces, glittery belts and sequin covered shoes.

Burning ambitions
Without sounding horribly cheesy, I would really like to make a difference. I've always felt that I'm very lucky and want to try and give something back. I'm hoping that once I've finished my PhD, I'll get a job at the World Health Organisation, the United Nations or maybe one of the relief agencies I work with at the moment.

The best thing is...
Having the freedom to work when I want to and allowing my imagination to take off. Even if I'm at the gym I can think at the same time and come up with solutions to problems and different ideas. Working with your brain means you can take it anywhere with you.

Regrets?
If I had done anything differently I wouldn't be me. I don't think any one way of doing something is the right way, everybody's got their own path and I'm totally happy with mine.