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There are many forests in the world ? ?, in fact they cover one third of the Earth’s land surface. It’s really important that we can understand how they affect the weather and the climate, and how they might be impacted by climate change.

For my research, I am studying how the smelly gases emitted by trees (called “biogenic volatile organic compounds”) affect chemistry in the air. Even though they are just tiny molecules, these gases can go on to affect clouds and the global climate.

I also meet with other scientists to discuss the results of our work, and figure out what we should do next; sometimes we are working with scientists in other countries so we have our meetings over Skype.

This is my desk (sorry about the mess!) where you can see my computer, I have two screens ?? so I can write codes on the left and look at maps and graphs on the right:

As well as being a scientist, I work for a charity called the United Bank of Carbon whose aim is to try and protect forests around the world. We try to protect forests in tropical countries, but also the trees and woodlands in towns and cities in the UK. This photo is from a day when our charity was helping to plant some new trees in Leeds: