I had a very lucky childhood, in that my parents have always loved to travel and have enjoyed the natural world. I was six or seven when my parents took my sister and I around some of the National Parks on North America's west coast, I was nine or ten when I visited Malaysia for the first time. The different experiences of these family holidays, seeing such amazing nature and at times horrific poverty, ended up shaping what I wanted to do. I always loved nature, and have always loved science and nature documentaries and knew that I wanted to do something to incorporate those when I went to university, so I studied environmental science. My interests were (and still are) in sustainable development, sustainable resourcing, climate change and doing something practical.

As part of my undergraduate dissertation project I got to work within a research group, looking at a decentralised drinking water technology platform. This project showed me that such technologies could have a really big impact on so many people around the world. After I graduated, I got a graduate job as an environmental engineer at a logistics company, but soon realised that I wanted to and could make a positive change to peoples lives. That's when I got back in touch with my dissertation supervisor and started up the conversation about potentially doing a PhD.