Profile

• I live in the North East of England. It’s quite windy here.
• I like chocolate brownie and ice cream. I don’t like chocomint icecream- it’s like cold toothpaste- yuck!
• I’m one of the space scientists featured in the Life Centre, Newcastle.
• My job title at Northumbria University is ‘Scientific Officer in Rehabilitation Sciences’ – just like Spock!
• I like to spin wool from sheep fleeces- I wash them, card them (which is brushing them to get the tangles out) and then spin the fibres into yarn using my spinning wheel. I haven’t made anything with the yarn yet, I usually give it to my friends as gifts. I like to crochet and sew too.
• I like wearing funky legging when I work out- I have leggings with rockets, rainbows, dinosaurs and cake so far.

I’m an Aerospace Physiologist and Physiotherapist. I study how people’s bodies change when they go into space. Then I try to find better ways to make then feel better on Earth. Mostly I study backs and spines.

In 2019 I worked on a big international bed rest study called AGBRESA. 24 people stayed in bed for 2 months so that we could simulate what happens in the body after being in space. Once they were all standing up again I spent 2 weeks doing a special back exercise with them on my research machine called FRED. FRED stands for the Functional Re-adaptive Exercise Device. It’s a fancy cross trainer.

I measured how 2 muscles changed size. One muscle is called Lumbar Multifidus, which is next to your spine and the other muscle is called Transverus Abdominus (which is the first layer of muscle around your stomach, about where your belly button is). These muscles work hard to keep us upright against gravity, so when we lay down for a long time they get weak and stop working as well.  The ultrasound shows a picture of what is inside the body, just like the ones pregnant ladies have to see their baby. Here I am practising in the lab- we practice every part of our experiment over and over again so that when we are in the lab getting the data for real we do it right every time.

At the moment with COVID-19 I usually work on my laptop in my kitchen rather than my office at uni- it’s a lot messier after breakfast with my family!

I sit down with orange juice and I check my emails and messages, sometimes there are things I have to help with right away because part of my job of Science Officer is to help other people fix problems with their equipment or experiments.

I use Excel and Word a lot. I also use special programs like SPSS ( which does statistics) to help with my work.

In the afternoon we normally have team meeting- sometimes about science, sometimes about teaching, sometimes with people in different countries. There is always someone interesting to listen to!

When I don’t have anything specific to do I like to make sure I’m still learning, so I do courses about the body, physiotherapy, I read new science articles to learn about what other people are doing, and I do outreach- like this!

I love doing science experiments with very young children at my daughter’s nursery- whether we are making cabbage water change colour or building rockets. I would like to do more food-safe experiments with children with special educational needs too