Making a Geologist

Raised in New Zealand, I was surrounded by nature, I fell in love with hiking through the volcanic landscapes of the North Island, the black sand beaches and the expansive landscapes. In high school I wanted to be a detective or an astrophysicist, until I realised that career would mean staying up all night, and I love my sleep far too much to give it up (haha hello kids). The quiet nudge in geology came at eighteen, from a classic and cheesy geology t-shirt someone was wearing at the gym, listing about fifteen traits — solves real-world problems, thinks in millions of years, works across every scale imaginable — before landing on: you must be a geologist. It resonated! So Geology 101 became my elective in a physics BSc — I was hooked by 3rd year and Geology had taken over my entire degree. My first Uni Auckland undergrad field trip, in true New Zealand style, rained every single day, the river flooded and the whole class had to hike out and ride home in the back of a truck.. the adventure, resilience — this was probably the first real sign I’d found the right field. The second year – hydrogeology class on an exchange at the University of Manchester opened my eyes to applied problems on natural resources and I could feel – it was my calling.

Becoming a Mother in Science

Becoming a mother has changed other questions for me, going from How do I do more? to How do I do what matters, well? Returning to research five months after my first child was born was one of the hardest stretches of my life and career — relearning what it meant to be a colleague, a scientist, a wife, myself, while also learning what motherhood meant for me. I’m now returning from my second maternity leave, with a four-year-old starting school and a six-month-old not yet in daycare — juggling logistics that shift weekly, plenty of home office days, and protecting deep work for the papers and grants that will actually move my career forward. Two children and hard-won strategies later, I’ve stopped chasing balance as a fixed state and started treating it as something built daily. I’m writing a blog to share what I’ve learnt, in the hope it’ll help others find their way and know they’re not alone.

Building Community

Leadership has been a core value of mine since my teenage years — back then I coached kids karate classes, and organised hiking trips. It evolved to raising my hand over and over to be on committees, to be student representative and volunteer for local charities. It often felt like, If not me, then who?

Since I’ve had kids, I realized volunteering and leadership are also about enabling others to lead — it means building the systems and communities that grow beyond ourselves. In 2020, with conferences cancelled overnight, I co-founded Ore Deposits Hub, hosting more than 100 invited speakers for a global audience of over 7,000, growing it into the field’s second-largest LinkedIn presence. I’ve since led international workshops on community communication, convened multidisciplinary talk series on Switzerland’s energy transition, and spoken on panels for the Society of Economic Geologists and the Responsible Raw Materials Conference and Discovery to Recover podcast. Closer to home, I sit on the Faculty of Geoscience Equality Commission, co-developed our 2025–2028 action plan, including a new postdoc mentorship programme, co-founded the Geoscience Diversity and Equity Switzerland Committee, connecting diversity efforts across the Swiss geoscience community, and drive diversity and early career initiatives on the Committee of the Swiss Geological Society.

(I’m also exploring coaching for working parents in research and academia, as well as DEI committees and groups — get in touch if that’s of interest.)

Current Work and What’s Next

In my current role as a junior lecturer and researcher at the University of Lausanne my work investigates one of Switzerland’s target aquifers for CO₂ sequestration and geothermal resources – focusing on fracture networks through my Fractures Regionally in the Muschelkalk FReMUK project. I was recently awarded our Faculty’s Matterhorn Grant for postdocs to explore an additional project on structure-controlled aperture geometries in drill core and have an open MSc position on structural controls and fracture networks in the Basel area for brine management in collaboration with Schweizer Salinen. I’m pursuing an Ambizione grant to take this multiscale reservoir understanding to Smackover lithium brines, because I believe I can create change and solutions — for georesources and for fellow researchers, students and society. I’m also building this space, on geo-resources and working-parenthood to connect and inspire us to nurture our georesources, our communities, our relationships, our kids, and of course, ourselves.