Question: what made you start become water and soil chemist

Emma Thorpe answered on 9 Mar 2026:

I always really liked lab work in school, college and then university. Although not all scientists or soil and water chemists are lab based – many are in the field (literally in the soil chemists case 😉

I was very lucky to get an internship to work at Ferrybridge C power station in the summer between my second and third year at uni. That started to open my eyes to water testing – contaminants in the boiler water can be corrosive and cause scaling at the high temps and pressure in the boiler. As well as the chimney emissions and testing. And the cooling towers treated with chlorine to avoid micro organism growth which could have been dangerous to plant operatives working in the aerosol nearby.

But I still didn’t really appreciate that there are 1000s of scientists working on carrying out tests to confirm that the water which comes out of our taps in the UK is safe to drink according to government regulations. Or that the treated wastewater has met the limits to be discharged back in to the river. It was only when I was contacted by a recruitment agency and started working at such a lab that I realised the need for soil and water chemists, and career opportunities available.

It would be nice if more labs allowed more students around for tours to make them aware, we have done a few in the past. But H&S can make it more difficult and having time to carry out the tours.