Profile
Catherine Mcquillan
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About Me:
I am an geoscientist. I may also be called a geo-environmental engineer, environmental scientist, or environmental consultant. I work out of Belfast, having previously worked all over England.
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I am lucky that Geoscience is my job, my hobby, special interest. I’m never bored with the project sites I work on. Without geodiversity there is no biodiversity. Everything is built on geology !
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My pronouns are:
She/her
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My Work:
I work on developing areas of land for building on. These may become houses, wind farms, quarries, factories in the future. I look at the soils, rocks, groundwater, rivers and atmosphere and how they interact, to see if there are going to by any problems for the people and the environment.
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We need development but we also need to protect the environment, plants and animals that are already there and improve what is there. The geology beneath the ground impacts how soft/hard the ground is and what kind of water there is. I work with ecologists (plant and animal specialists), civil and structural engineers, acoustic technicians.
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My Typical Day:
I work from the office 2 days a week, usually 1 day on site and the rest from my home office, from around 9am. I usually stop working at 5pm.
I start with checking my emails to see if there is anything urgent I need to do. I then look at lots of maps, geology (soils and rocks have difference chemicals and properties), old historical maps which may show quarries or coal mining workings and then lots of data bases. I then go to site to take some photos, check what is on the map or bring in equipment such as diggers and drilling rigs to get samples below the ground of the soil. rock and groundwater.
I use water cycle, carbon cycle, ecosystem knowledge. I do also use pythagoras theorem, need to work out the areas of cylinders etc so a lot that I learned in school I use daily.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would buy lots of fossils and crystals from all over the world.
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Education:
I went to a High School, and then a Grammar to complete ALevels
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Qualifications:
I gained 8 GCSES. I then had to move to a grammar school to do A Levels which were Geography, Biology and Chemistry.
I wanted to got to University. There are different pathways now with BTECs and apprenticeships available, and within Northern Ireland Ulster University’s Environmental Science would be good starting point. There are now also several different apprenticeship degrees.
I’m now a Chartered scientist and Chartered water and environmental manager
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Work History:
Supermarket assistant when I was in high school. I worked there for over 5 years whilst I did my ALevels and then part time during the summer whilst i was at university.
I was lucky then I got a job straight from Uni as a placement student.
I tried to do a career change a few years ago into waste water (sewers) but after a year I decided it was not for me so I came back to environmental consulting.
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Current Job:
Geosciences consultant/ geo-environmental engineer
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Employer:
RSK
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
I love geoscience
What did you want to be after you left school?
Volcanologist. I wanted to run of and study volcanoes but I changed by mind in University as i discovered lots of other areas
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I thought about becoming a mortician. When younger would have loved to have been an F1 mechanic.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Avicii, Taylor Swift.
What's your favourite food?
Pizza and broccoli
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Constant good sleep, a million pounds, meet Elon Musk
Tell us a joke.
Are you looking for rock jokes? Let’s see what we can dig up
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