My life as a Geologist

• Mt. Sackville past pupil: Graduated in 2003

• Member of the special choir

• Played for the senior A basketball team

• Cricket secretary• Music lover• Crafter and I love to bake• Snowboarder• GIANT NERD!

All about Aoife

What happened next

Why Science?• Always had an interest in how things work• Favourite movies as a kid were Back to the Future and Jurassic park• Always wanted a lab coat• Wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and studying science gave me plenty

of options

• Went to Trinity College to study Natural Science.• Wanted to study physics or Zoology• Fell in love with Geology instead• Became an exploration geologist in Ireland, 2007• Moved to Northern Sweden, 2009• Moved to Burkina Faso, West Africa, 2012

What is Geology?• The study of the rocks that comprise the earth

(and other planetary bodies) and the processes that create/change them.

• Lots of different disciplines within Geology:

How geology relates to you

What is a geologist?

• “ Geologists are scientists with unnatural obsession with rock. Often too intelligent to do monotonous sciences like biology, chemistry or physics, geologists devote their time to mud worrying, volcano poking, fault finding, bouldering, dust-collecting and high risk colouring in.”- Uncyclopedia definition

Face of Geology today

Meet my friends

Jo: PalaeontologistPatagonia/Germany

Caoimhe: Exploration GeologistCanada

Karina:Geoscientist Ireland

Rhian: VolcanologistIceland

Susannah: PalaeontologistMontana USA

Victoria: Seismologist based in Leicester UniOman/Turkey/Spain/Romania/Iceland

Orla: Exploration GeologistNorway/Ireland

Becs:Exploration GeologistPeru/Zambia

Eimear:Exploration geologistMauritania

Heather:Mine geologistSweden/Australia

Karen:Resource geologistAustralia

Nicola:Exploration GeologistCanada/The Yukon

Useful science sites• Geology: www.geoschol.ie, www.iaeg.org, www.gsi.ie,

www.tcd.ie/geology

• www.tcd.ie/Science, www.ucd.ie/science, www.nuigalway.ie/science, www.nuim.ie, www.ucc.ie,

• sciencegallery.com, www.nhm.ac.uk, The zoo, the beach, the park, your own house!

• lookslikescience.tumblr.com• www.khanacademy.org• www.ted.com/

Thanks for listening. Any questions?