Region

Canterbury

Job

Laura is completing her Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Environmental Science. Her honours project is looking at nitrate pollution in the Ashburton River in the Canterbury region.

Laura has samples the water at various sites along the river every two weeks. She then tests each water sample for quality indicators, such as nitrate concentration, pH, conductivity, turbidity, and dissolved nitrous oxide.

Each season she also conducts isotopic analyses on her water samples using a mass spectrometer. Different sources of nitrogen have different isotopic signatures, so by determining the isotopic signatures of nitrate-nitrogen in her water samples and comparing these with those of known sources such as fertiliser, animal excreta, and Ashburton wastewater, she can determine the source of the nitrate in the Ashburton river.

Laura really enjoys doing field work as she likes to be outside. She also likes learning the laboratory skills necessary for her project.

Career Pathway

Laura’s favourite subject at school was geography and this had led to her interest in environmental studies. She was delighted to discover that her interests in the environment are applicable to working in the dairy industry.

She was apprehensive about getting a student loan to continue her studies, but found out about the the New Zealand Dairy Industry Undergraduate Scholarship, at the Waikato Careers’ Expo. She was awarded this scholarship and it gave her the push she needed to go to university.

At Lincoln University, Laura was introduced to soil and physical sciences. Her classes dealt with a lot of today’s major environmental issues. She liked the water quality aspects of it and went on to choose papers which included aspects of this topic such as engineering, hydrology, environmental chemistry, and soil sciences.

At the end of her second year at Lincoln University, Laura applied for, and was accepted for a summer scholarship within the soil science division. She was paid to work alongside a scientist at the university for ten weeks of the summer break. She learned a wide range of skills over this time including effective literature searching, experimental design, laboratory techniques, and report writing. She says: “My scholarship work in the lab was invaluable for my studies the following year”. A scientific paper was written from Laura’s scholarship work and was accepted for publication in 2007.

The following summer she was given the chance to undertake another summer scholarship and she furthered the work done the previous year.

Laura is hoping to use her experiences to get her a job in a research institute where she will contribute to the dairy industry. She is hoping to have a job that requires at least some time spent outdoors, and would like to become involved with the design or implementation of more efficient and sustainable systems for dealing with dairy effluent waste. She would also like to get involved in the remediation of streams and rivers that have received the discharge of poorly treated dairy waste and as a result are now polluted.

Perhaps further in the future she may like to go back to university and do a PhD overseas with the aim of becoming a research scientist.

Interests

Laura loves sports and anything to do with the outdoors. She likes running, cycling, and playing tennis. She also likes going tramping when time permits. She loves living in Canterbury since it is a great place for a wide range of outdoor activities like mountain biking, hiking, running, and skiing.

Laura always enjoys going home to visit her family and school friends in the Hauraki/Thames Valley area and really likes the beach lifestyle in the Coromandel.