Our alumnae Joanna Reynolds (BP), Frances Cooper (University of Bristol) & Eleni Bohacek (UCL) have joined us for the careers event to talk about their chosen professions, experiences and diverse careers in Earth sciences.
The UCL Women in Earth Science group hosted its first careers event on the 8th June 2021. In this exciting event we were joined by Joanna Reynolds (BP), Frances Cooper (University of Bristol) and Eleni Bohacek (UCL) and had the opportunity to learn about their career paths, experiences and discover some of the many diverse careers in Earth sciences.
Dr Frances J. Cooper, University of Bristol:
Frances Cooper graduated from UCL in 2003 with an MSci in Geology and a keen interest in structural geology and tectonics (her MSci project on active faulting in the Gulf of Corinth whetting her appetite for more). After initially staying on at UCL to take up a NERC PhD studentship, she ended up moving across the pond to complete her studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA. In 2008, Frances left USC with a PhD on the exhumation of mid-crustal rocks in the Basin and Range province, Nevada and a desire for more scientific adventures. She went on to do a 4-year postdoc at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona with a research focus on the role of extensional faulting in the eastern Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. In 2012, Frances hopped back across the pond to take up a lectureship at the University of Bristol. Since then, she has been involved in a collaboration with the mining company, BHP, investigating tectonic controls on copper deposits in northern Chile and the western USA. Frances has two young children (aged 3.5 and 1) and can attest to the competing demands of a field-based research career and maintaining a healthy “work/life balance”.
Jo Reynolds, BP:
Jo Reynolds graduated from UCL in 2014, after completing the MSci Geophysics course. After a year of travelling, she joined bp in September 2015 as a Geophysicist, starting up in the Aberdeen office. Here, she worked on the Schiehallion field, analysing world-class 4D seismic data to identify new wells to be drilled on the field, and subsequently leading the planning of two wells which were drilled by the Deepsea Aberdeen drilling rig. Following this work, and her leadership of the Aberdeen Graduate community, she won the Oil & Gas UK Graduate of the Year award in 2017. Since then, she has worked in various exploration teams and spent 7 months in bp’s central Carbon Ambition team, directly contributing to bp’s Net Zero agenda. Jo has recently pivoted from a hydrocarbon Geophysicist to a Low Carbon Geophysicist, working in bp’s Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Screening team.
Eleni Bohacek, UCL:
Eleni is an interdisciplinary researcher in planetary sciences and computer vision. She completed her MSci in Earth Sciences at UCL in 2014 and then joined the UCL-Cambridge Center for Doctoral Training in Integrated Photonic and Electronic Systems for her MRes and PhD. Her doctoral research was about 3-D imaging with the ExoMars ‘Rosalind Franklin’ 2022 rover. She will be a research fellow at the European Space Agency from September working on geological mapping of Mars with machine learning.
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