My current role at UCL is as Student Mediator (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/student-mediator/) wherein I work with students to find informal solutions to problems encountered during their university study. This includes using mediation as alternative conflict resolution, support and advice on pursuing complaints of bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment and misconduct and advising on the submission of formal complaints on academic and other matters. Prior to this I held the position of Dean of Students (Welfare) at UCL which had oversight of the institution’s student support services. I have also held the positions of lecturer and senior lecturer in geology in the UCL Department of Earth Sciences for almost 20 years.

My academic research interests are in mineralogy applied within the cross-disciplinary and broad research themes of cultural heritage. I consider myself as both a field- and a lab-based scientist, having worked on archaeological and geological sites in France, Spain, Greece, Italy and Egypt. My main interest is in the analysis and characterisation of pigments used by artists, predominantly in archaeological and contemporary painting. I have worked on the analysis of Roman-period painting throughout the ancient empire, on sites ranging geographically from Edinburgh to Egypt, and from the 2nd Century BCE to the 4th Century CE. I am also working with contemporary artists via collaborations with the Slade School of Fine Art and colourmen Winsor & Newton to better understand approaches to colour, materials and materiality within artists’ practice.

I have also worked extensively on characterising recipes and technologies of cementitious materials (mortars and concretes) in archaeological and historical contexts. This has also led to collaborations with archaeologists in the related field of ceramic petrology and the co-creation of a successful and long-running international postgraduate short course to introduce this subject with Vangelio Kiriatzi, Director of the Fitch Lab of the British School at Athens. I also have a specialist interest in the provenance of stone used in art and architecture, again in archaeological contexts and within the modern built environment and in collaboration with contemporary artists. I am actively involved in outreach and teaching on the relationships between of Earth sciences and the built environment – urban geology. This involves leading numerous geological walks around London and further afield, and I have self-published a number of self-guided geological walks around London and other localities. These can be downloaded from www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfbrxs/Homepage/UrbanGeology.htm. I have also co-developed (with Dave Wallis, industry geologist) the London Pavement Geology website and App which archives building stones used in London and the wider UK; www.londonpavementgeology.co.uk. I have also produced teaching modules for the UK A-Level Geology qualification.