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Academic Year 2020-2021
Institution Queen's University, Belfast

Biography

 

Graduation Date: November 2024

What did your pathway to PhD look like? I completed a four-year undergraduate degree in Earth Sciences, followed by a MSc in Environmental Sciences, both at Trinity College Dublin. I knew I wanted to do a PhD but took some time to try an industry job first. I moved to London and worked in a large environmental consultancy. I loved my job, but there was very little opportunity for research and after four years I made the decision to apply for a QUADRAT DTP PhD project at Queen’s University Belfast.

What made you apply to the QUADRAT DTP? I came across the QUADRAT project on a PhD advertising website, the subject of the research was glaciers, sedimentology and remote-sensing so I was instantly sold! I did not know what a DTP was before this and the opportunity to complete training and an internship also really appealed to me.

What was your PhD research title? “Glacial Geomorphology – Breiðamerkurjökull, Iceland”

Can you tell us a little bit about your PhD research? The aim of my research was to document seasonal and annual landscape evolution at Breiðamerkurjökull, a glacier on the south side of the Vatnajökull ice cap in Iceland. Over five field trips to Iceland, we completed drone and geophysical surveys along with field mapping to produce a time-series of geomorphology maps. The outputs of my research improved our understanding of ice and meltwater dynamics, which can be applied to other contemporary and palaeo-glacial environments.

What were the highlights and/or biggest accomplishments of your PhD? I am very grateful for the opportunity to complete five field campaigns to Breiðamerkurjökull. My first field trip was the first time I had ever seen a glacier in real life, I had never used any geophysics equipment and didn’t know much about glaciology at all! My biggest accomplishment was seeing how much progress I had made and how much I have learned. By the end of my PhD I was giving invited talks on my research and published two of my research chapters (with more on the way!):

  • Lally, A., Ruffell, A., Newton, A.M.W., et al. (2023) The evolution and preservation potential of englacial eskers: An example from Breiðamerkurjökull, SE Iceland. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 48, 2864–2883. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5664
  • Lally, A., Ruffell, A., Newton, A.M.W. et al. (2024) Geomorphological signature of topographically controlled ice flow-switching at a glacier margin: Breiðamerkurjökull (Iceland) as a modern analogue for palaeo-ice sheets. Geomorphology 454, 109184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2024.109184

What part(s) of the QUADRAT programme had the strongest impact on you and your career? A huge positive of the QUADRAT DTP was having supervisors from both universities. Having such a strong supervisory team, with expertise across different areas, had a really positive impact on the quality of my research. My UoA supervisors provided me opportunities to extend my network which would have been more difficult to obtain without the partnership between both universities.

Please tell us a little bit about what you are doing now? I submitted my thesis at the end of June 2024 and I am still awaiting my viva (July 2024). I was lucky enough to secure a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at QUB, which will be keeping be busy until April 2025. The skills of mapping landscape change and managing large remote-sensing datasets are transferable to my current project which is mapping plant productivity across grasslands in Northern Ireland.

How did your PhD help you decide on this career path? Completing the PhD has solidified my desire for a career in research. I really enjoyed managing my own research project and being responsible for what direction I wanted to take the research – which is what I was missing during my time in industry.

What advice would you offer to current/future PhD students and applicants? The advice I would give is to connect with your QUADRAT cohort and fellow PhD students in your office/lab. Even though everyone has different topics and supervisors, having a support network of people who are going through some of the same experiences as you really is invaluable!

Some other advice I would give myself if I was starting all over again is to write out detailed notes on the background information for your project at the start of the PhD. Why it is important in the most basic terms and include all the basic principles. Your literature list will expand over the years and your project direction may shift but having a really solid foundation on your research topic that can be used in your thesis will be invaluable in Year 3. You do not want to be writing most of your introduction and literature review in those final months (speaking from experience…)

What is your best memory of QUADRAT? The Courmayeur trip in the second year was definitely the highlight. After a tough start to the PhD during the pandemic, it was amazing to get to spend time with my cohort in such a beautiful alpine setting. The entire trip was a great opportunity, I learned a lot and got to know everyone much better.

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