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What A-Levels did you study? Physics, Chemistry, Maths

My job is…

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester in the Centre for Atmospheric Science. This job title basically means that I am working on a research project with a senior member of university staff and that I have a PhD. A PhD (which stands for “Doctor of Philosophy”) is a qualification in research so I've proved that I can understand a field of work, find out new things and then put this new work into context. In my case, I am researching the weather conditions that cause thunderstorms.

Home is…

I live in Didsbury, which is part of the Manchester urban sprawl. I have a cool flat and live with my wife, Caro. Didsbury is very nice: lots of pubs and restaurants and there is a great cheese shop here!

The story so far…

At school I found that I was better at science and maths than the other subjects I was studying so I went on to do a physics degree at Imperial College, London. I got particularly interested in atmospheric physics, especially how really small changes in the atmosphere can have big impacts – this is known as chaos theory. I then did a postgraduate masters degree on Environmental Modelling at the University of East Anglia. This was a great course and I discovered my enthusiasm for research during this year so I moved on to the University of Birmingham to do a PhD on Antarctic weather and climate change. This was a really interesting project that helped to show how weather patterns around Antarctica affect the chemical makeup of the snow that falls onto the continent. This is important because the Antarctic ice can stay there for many thousands of years and is often used by scientists to understand the climate of the past. If you're interested in this work, there's more details here on my website. After completing that project, I got my job in Manchester to research thunderstorms!

Day in the life

Most of my time is spent at a computer analysing data that has been collected from weather instruments like radars, satellites, weather balloons and planes. I also have to use models of the atmosphere in my work; models like the Met Office use to produce the weather forecasts that are on TV every day. The ultimate aim of this research is to find out new things and then write up these results to be published in scientific journals. To get these reports, or papers, published they have to be reviewed by other scientists to ensure that the results are good. This means that you have to have a good grasp of the big picture (so that the report is interesting) and a real understanding of the details (so that the reviewers of the work can assess the science). This sounds pretty dull but you can get involved in some interesting debates with other scientists about the questions at hand. You can see my papers here.

However, it is the non-typical days that make the job really interesting. For example, the data that I analyse has to be collected in intense campaigns, so every few years lots of scientists from all over the world take instruments, planes or just expertise to a chosen site for a few months to observe thunderstorms as they develop. The data that I am currently working with was collected in 2007 in the Black Forest, Germany over a 3 month period. This campaign was a great opportunity to meet new people and see some new places, as well as doing some good science! I also get lots of chances to travel in my job, paid for by the university ;), usually to attend conferences, workshops or just to visit other scientists to talk about new work that we can do. These trips can be pretty busy but you can always find time to have fun and look around the places that you get sent to – it’s not like proper work!

Pet project

Before the German project, I was working on the Convective Storm Initiation Project (CSIP) between 2005 and 2007. The field campaign of this project was based at the Chilbolton Radar in Hampshire. There's a short video here showing the radar in action. I had a great time setting up instruments and launching weather balloons during CSIP. A lot of good science has come out of CSIP and I’ve tried to explain one of the main results I found to a non-expert here.

Free time

My main hobby (and method of transport) is my bike. I enjoy getting about by bike and often ride out in the Peaks at weekends. I’m also involved with a couple of organisations that try and promote cycling as a valuable form of transport and help to make cycling on the roads easier. I play guitar pretty badly but enjoy it and, during my PhD years, I used to regularly play with a couple of other students. I got quite into singing and drum programming too. Music is my big passion and I go to a lot of gigs (my office is just across the road from the Manchester Academy) and festivals. I love travelling and being a researcher provides lots of opportunities to visit places. In the last few years I've been to New Zealand, California, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Isle of Arran. This year (2008) I will travel to Mexico, the Swiss Alps and Italy.

What are your burning ambitions?

I think my most important ambition is to enjoy my job. I do really like the research aspect of my work but it’s all the extra bits I get to do that make it super-good and I’m always on the look out for conferences, workshops or little jobs I can get involved with. Career-wise, I’m really keen on getting funding for a research project of my own on climate change and storm development over Europe – I think it would be exciting to see a big project all the way through from writing the proposal for funding to publishing the results.

The best thing is…

The best thing about my job is that I have real freedom to research what I want within the bounds of the project. It is nice to know that if I find something that looks interesting in the data, then I'm free to investigate it further, even if turns out to be a dead end. There's so much we don't understand about the atmosphere, and our measurements are always getting better, that more often than not you discover something that no-one else knows! Outside of my research I am also relatively free to take on other little responsibilities/jobs related to my work. As well as being a NOISEmaker, I also organise meetings for the Royal Meteorological Society, I review papers for scientific journals and I make sure that people can keep up to speed with my research at my website - www.andrewrussell.co.uk. I like keeping my work varied and taking on new jobs helps me keep enthusiastic.

Any regrets?

As far as my education goes, I regret the subject specialisation that happens so early in a science career. Don’t get me wrong, studying science in the UK is great – you can go from undergraduate fresher to PhD graduate in around 6 years, which would take at least 10 years to do in the USA or many European countries. However, I do wish that I had continued studying languages after GCSE level. I am now trying to put this right, though, by taking some evening classes in German.

What do you love most about science and engineering?

One of the best things about science and research is that you never know what you’re going to find out. Even if you start out with a good idea of what you think is going on, it usually turns out that things are more complicated and interesting than you thought. Sometimes the answer is even something that you never would have imagined it would be! This can be frustrating when you get stuck but the sense of achievement when you do work something out is pretty amazing, especially when other people think it’s interesting too.

Name ONE quirky/crazy fact about your job

Whilst launching weather balloons during CSIP I was battered with 1.5cm diameter hailstones and nearly struck by lightning. I also nearly took down an overhead power cable with a balloon.