Spotlight on Rosemary Willatt

What is your role and what does it involve?

My role within the Environmental Sustainability Team is to identify and engage stakeholders with respect to environmental sustainability at UCL. UCL was recently awarded EcoCampus Silver; as we work towards the Gold award there will be many programmes for staff and students to be involved in.

To start off with we have Green Week UCL in the Quad and South Cloisters 16-18 October between 11am and 3pm. Here are some highlights:

• Delicious food, FREE Rainforest Alliance coffee and other freebies throughout
• Tuesday 16th (food) plant seeds to grow your own food
• Wednesday 17th (materials) - bring clothes and books for a great big swap
• Thursday 18th (transport) - free cycle maintenance, bike rides and an HGV-view of cyclists by day, a pedal-powered cinema from 6:30pm
• Environment-related poster competition in the South Cloisters Tuesday 16th-Wednesday 17th.

I'll also be managing the Green Impact UCL programme, where teams reduce the environmental impact of their department/division, and Green Innovation UCL, where we use the fantastic expertise amongst UCL minds and crowdsourcing to find new solutions to environmental problems. I'll also be helping to support UCL's network of Green Champions. There's more at our new website and we're on Twitter too, @GreenUCL. You can contact us with any questions or ideas at greenucl@ucl.ac.uk.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I started my current role in June this year. I have always been passionate about the environment and before working in the Environmental Sustainability team I was a PhD student at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) in UCL's Earth Sciences department. During my PhD I studied radar penetration into snow cover on sea ice, including in situ studies on Arctic and Antarctic ice. I wanted to study an aspect of climate change during my PhD and remote sensing of the polar regions is a fascinating and dynamic area of research.

My PhD fuelled my interest in environmental sustainability and I became keen to work on reducing the environmental impacts of a large organisation such as UCL through engaging the diverse population of staff and students.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

I was really pleased with the response to the Green Week UCL poster competition. We have nearly 30 varied submissions from across UCL's disciplines. Green Week will be a great opportunity to explore academic and more practical aspects of environmental sustainability side by side.

I am also proud to have studied for an MSci and PhD at UCL, including carrying out research on Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, and to have worked at the European Space Agency where I produced X-ray images of astronomical objects.

What is your life like outside UCL?

Outside UCL I like designing and making clothes, seeing friends, photography, learning new things, going to concerts and the theatre, exploring London, cooking, dance, reading, picnics and generally being outside!