A Brighton University graduate who started her working life as a tube train driver has been made a fellow of one of the world’s most prestigious science programmes.
Jacqueline Campbell graduated with an earth and ocean sciences degree from Brighton University’s School of Environment and Technology four years ago.
She went on to win a studentship at University College London (UCL) where she is studying for a doctorate (PhD) in planetary science.
Ms Campbell has now been appointed one of just 22 fellows on the Schmidt Science Fellows programme.
The programme aims “to give the world’s best aspiring scientific minds a broader perspective, the ability to engage in an interdisciplinary way and the opportunity to make a lasting impact in society”.
It encourages emerging scientists to develop novel solutions to society’s challenges and to become “scientific and societal thought leaders and accelerate ground-breaking discoveries”.
Ms Campbell praised Brighton University, saying: “I am very grateful to the university as I started my degree there as a mature student having been a tube train driver and care worker for many years.
“It was a difficult transition into science, made much easier by all the wonderful staff at Brighton.”
She plans to go on to study ocean acidification using satellite data and to make scientific data easier to access and interpret.
She added: “The hope is to make a global map that anyone can use to find information and data, whether that’s fellow scientists, students, journalists, policy-makers or anyone with an interest.”
