When it comes to extreme sports - quad biking, sand dune boarding, snowmobiling, jet skiing, parachute jumping, canyoning, helicopter flying, trekking inside active volcanoes, surfing, beach volleyball, kayaking, padel, pickleball, or even just stand-up paddleboarding on the river at home with friends - I'll always say yes to any opportunity to try a new challenge!

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​At just 16 years old, I set off backpacking with a group of school friends for a month around Malaysia, with just our bags, £4,000 in cash, one Nokia 3510 and one guidebook between us. I'm very grateful our parents trusted us, because it was truly the start of my adventure travel escapades, and where I first learnt to scuba dive. We also spent a week installing solar panels and bringing power to an off-grid wildlife park in the jungle, so in many ways the start of my climate technology journey too. 

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​When we were 18, a friend and I went backpacking around Bolivia and Peru for 6 weeks. My favourite adventure of the trip was zip lining and mountain biking to Machu Picchu with a group of guys from the Israeli army, before getting up at 3 a.m. to hike to the summit so we could be the very first people in when it opened. It was also whilst traversing the Salar de Uyuni, renowned for its vast lithium deposits, and going deep down the Potosi mines that I first became interested in the critical minerals and refining processes that will be needed to underpin the clean energy transition. 

 

Aged 20, five friends and I spent 2 months living in Uganda with a family in a local village. We built and trained the community how to construct firewood-saving stoves, protected a water source, constructed a water tank to collect rainwater from the roof of the local primary school where we taught, and established skilled local committees to continue the work after we left. That summer the area had been hit hard by a drought, most of the crops had failed, many animals had died, and famine was both high and very visible. It viscerally made me understand and feel how the impacts of climate change affect communities - especially in developing countries where they have to live with the consequences so present and front of mind every single day.

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​​​At 21, during my chemistry degree, I persuaded Oxford University to let me do 4 months of my Master's research at Sydney University where the best team in the world for the topic I was studying was located. At Oxford you could only do a year abroad if you studied languages, so it was a gamble, but one that really paid off. I secured my first-class undergraduate degree, and was also able to backpack and scuba dive all up the East Coast. It was whilst I was in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park that I was inspired to go back to Oxford University to do my chemistry PhD, developing new hydrogen and ammonia technologies to advance their use as zero-carbon fuels, renewable products, and long-duration energy storage and distribution solutions. 

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Aged 22, I headed off backpacking again with friends around Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. From climbing mountains, to some of the world's best scuba diving, learning to ride a motorbike, and spending time with some incredible communities, I learnt a lot about myself and the fragility of different ecosystems. 

 

In the following few years, a diverse range of experiences from an exchange in Russia, camel trekking through the Sahara desert in Morocco, navigating border crossings in Mexico, glacier trekking in New Zealand - all broadened my understanding of the interconnectedness of our planet and gave me perspective on all the different nuances we face. ​​​​

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In recent years, my corporate job in technology development and investing has continued to enable me to explore the world. In Iceland I was able to visit a Direct Air Capture facility and a geothermal power plant, alongside being able to dry suit dive in a tectonic crack - touching both the Eurasian and North American plate at the same time. Diving in Ras Mohammed National Park as part of COP27 offered some of the most diverse coral reefs and rich marine life I've ever seen. 

 

I've loved spending lots of time in Kenya, working in Nairobi and at the Olkaria geothermal power plants trying to develop a renewable fertiliser production facility. This felt very meaningful, as I was now able to directly help solve some of the access to food and food security issues I'd felt and experienced so first-hand over the border in Uganda several years prior. But also being able to go mountain biking through Hell's Gate National Park surrounded by zebra and giraffe, and trail running with the Maasai Mara were experiences I'll never forget. 

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