Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Beyond a rock…

It’s not often on BaR that we feature a personal blog, but I can’t live a lie any longer. I am officially Beyond a Rock.

Yes, after 3.5 years of blood, sweat and tears (thanks to the piston cylinders in the basement for all three), I am done. That ‘handed-in, viva’d, corrected, getting post addressed to Dr’ type of done.

LA cake

The most amazing viva cake ever. The Lesser Antilles in fondant glory (made by Kate Hibbert & KT Cooper). Photo credit: Charly Stamper

As of today I will be starting a new role at a company called GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water. GENeco run treatment facilities diverting food and liquid waste from landfill, and recycle these resources to produce biomethane and fertilisers. They operate a zero waste policy and the company is energy self-sufficient. Essentially, in the words of my PhD ‘colleagues’ I’ll be helping to “make biofuels out of poo”. Thanks guys!

I’m really excited about this new challenge. I’ve been interested in ‘green’ issues for a while now (a long, long time ago I was the students union Environment Officer) and as much as I do love thinking about the oxygen fugacity of magma chambers, I am looking forward to tackling some tangible, real-world problems.

I will still continue to write for BaR, and I promise that sometimes I will still write about rocks. Elspeth and I also have an exciting video project in the pipeline, so stayed tuned.

Until next time, from beyond a rock…C

Charly completed a PhD in experimental petrology. She used to make pretend volcanoes; now she works in renewable energy. Charly tweets at @C_Stamper.