A Summer of Sun, Soil and Savannas

By Ellie Wilding, PhD student in the Department of Plant Sciences If I say the word “Savanna”, I am sure you – like I did – think of vast, Lion King-esque African plains, bursting at the seams with lions and elephants, Timone and Pumba. Over the course of this summer field season, I have been …

The Living Silk Road: Searching for Elusive Tulips in the Mountains of Central Asia

By Brett Wilson, PhD student in the Department of Plant Sciences During my early student life I never thought I would work in Central Asia, to be honest I knew very little about this region and its people; I would have even struggled to point to many of the countries on a map. It was …

Rewilding reptiles: Using lizards to restore landscapes in South Australia

By Tom Jameson, PhD student in the Department of Zoology Guuranda, the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, is a landscape of gently rolling hills, vast fields of grain stubble and dusty sheep. As you approach the coast remnant patches of native shrub give way to sand dunes and mangroves, white sand beaches and an azure …

Attending COP 26 as a Climate Change PhD Student

By Karla Boxall, PhD Student in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute COP, or Conference of the Parties, is the UN-organised Climate Change conference that all countries attend with the purpose of tackling climate change. COP 26, held in Glasgow, was of particular importance under the Paris Agreement agreed upon at COP 21 …

Interning (remotely) at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)

By Kate Howlett, PhD student in the Department of Zoology In the third year of my PhD in zoology, I took some time out to work as a Postgraduate Fellow at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). This placement is offered as part of the UKRI Policy Internship Scheme, available to PhD students …

Interning with the Environmental Audit Committee

By Carrie Soderman, PhD student in Earth Sciences From February to April this year, in the midst of lockdown and halfway through the third year of my PhD, I took 3 months away from geochemistry to work with the Environmental Audit Committee, a House of Commons Select Committee. This opportunity was part of an amazing …

UKRI Policy Internships Scheme: My three months at Senedd Research

By Emily Tilby, PhD student in the Department of Archaeology One of the things that encouraged me to apply for a PhD with the ESS (now C-CLEAR) NERC DTP in Cambridge was the option to take part in various training and development opportunities throughout my PhD, one of these being the UKRI policy internships scheme. …

Wildlife, children and happiness: reconnecting the next generation with the natural world

By Kate Howlett, PhD student at the Museum of Zoology Wildlife, children and happiness. Not three words you usually think of as being in the same sentence, I’d wager. But this is, broadly speaking, my PhD project in a nutshell. Not your average project funded by an Earth Science DTP, but here I am, two …

Becoming a Deep Earth Explorer

By Steve Pugh, PhD Student in the Department of Earth Sciences Mantle plumes transport hot rock through the mantle. It sounds exciting doesn’t it. Deep Earth Explorer conjures up images of caves, abseiling and the like. It’s actually a pseudonym I have taken on, alongside my colleagues, in designing a museum exhibit about our research. …

Phosphorous: Life, the Universe, and Everything

By Craig Walton, PhD student in Earth Sciences  I have something to admit: ever since starting my PhD in the Department of Earth Sciences here at Cambridge, I’ve developed something of an obsession. Everyone knows it. I can’t stop talking about it. Phosphorous (15P – Figure 1). In my opinion element 15 is the answer …