Case studies: Air quality consultant: Kate

Kate has a physics degree from the University of Surrey and an MSc Applied Meteorology from the University of Reading. She works for Environmental Resources Management (ERM)

I chose to take physics at university as I considered it to be the most useful of my A-level choices (law, business studies, physics and maths). My decision was based on the fact that I could always go into business in any area of work with a physics degree, but I couldn't do much scientific work with a business degree.

During my degree I took the opportunity to do a sandwich placement year at Rutherford Appleton Labs. This was invaluable in giving me an appreciation of some of the many things I could do with my degree.

In my final year I become aware of the economic downturn, and realised after just a few interviews that the job market was much harder than I had been expecting. This led me back into education and I studied for an MSc in Applied Meteorology. My physics degree provided me with an excellent background for this subject, and my numerical and programming skills allowed me to support others as well as myself on the course.

I chose to take a dissertation topic which was supported by Peter Brett Associates and which involved testing an air dispersion model used mostly in impact assessments. I realised through this that environmental consultancy was an excellent industry to work in as it allowed me to use so many of my skills and build new ones.

My first job at ERM has proved to be more exciting than I could have hoped for. I work across the UK and internationally on a daily basis. The projects we work on are large and complicated, so an appreciation of the limitations of modelling any physical process, especially the atmosphere, has been invaluable.

The ability to appreciate units, data management and data quality are all skills that I have developed during my degree and which support me in my chosen career. However, the most important skill of them all is to be able to look at a number and say 'is it sensible?'

AGCAS

Sourced by AGCAS editors

Date: 

May 2012

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