Meet the Committee

Engineering Geologist at Mott MacDonald

Dan was elected Chair of the ECN in 2024, and is an engineering geologist currently working at Mott MacDonald in the Civils and Metros department. Dan has several years of practical experience delivering site investigation projects across the UK, previously working for Arcadis, Structural Soils Ltd, and Constructive Evaluation Ltd. Dan transitioned to a new role in geotechnical consultancy in 2024.

Geologist at Tarmac

Rachael is a mining geologist who is currently working for Tarmac, having previously undertaken their graduate scheme. As part of her role, she gets involved with a wide variety of quarrying and strategic business projects, including exploration work, quarry design, and modelling/mapping. Prior to joining Tarmac in 2022, she completed a BSc Geology degree from the University of Southampton and a MSc in Mining Geology from the Camborne School of Mines, for which she gained a scholarship from Women in Mining UK.

Hydrogeologist at AtkinsRéalis

Ellen is a Hydrogeologist currently working at AtkinsRéalis in water management consultancy. Ellen contributes to a wide variety of groundwater resource management and infrastructure projects.

Prior to joining AtkinsRéalis, Ellen worked as a Hydrogeologist at TOBIN Consulting Engineers in Ireland and completed a Woman in Mining internship as a Discovery Geologist at Anglo American.

Ellen holds a BA Mod Geology from Trinity College Dublin and an MSc Hydrogeology from University of Birmingham. Ellen hopes the ECN will serve as a way for increased networking amongst early careers from a variety of disciplines. 

Geoscientist at Hotspur Helium

Will is a Geoscientist at Hotspur Helium, working with the technical team to establish sustainable helium exploration and development projects in emerging markets. He also worked with the team in 2023 on the early-stage development of two geothermal heat projects in Kenya and Tanzania.

He completed an MSc degree in Geophysics at the University of Bristol in 2024, producing a published Masters thesis on dynamic modelling of debris flows in the Italian Alps.

Sustainability Consultant at Satarla

Jocelyn currently works as a Sustainability Consultant at Satarla, with a large focus on the Minerals and Mining industry, whose work has centred on sustainable transformation, leveraging her knowledge of the reporting landscape. ​With a Master’s degree in Earth Sciences, she has worked across both private and public sectors to produce ESG reports, assess the sustainability maturity of organisations, and develop strategies and roadmaps to achieve sustainability goals. She has a strong interest in understanding how reporting and risk can most effectively inform strategy and drive meaningful and long-term change. 

Exploration Geologist at Regis Resources

Jean-Jacques works as as an Exploration Geologist in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields. Prior to his move, Jean-Jacques worked with CGG/Viridien on global- to regional-scale exploration toolsets and global generative exploration projects, with a particular focus on critical minerals.

He has experienced at Africa-focused junior explorer Altus Strategies, supporting business development and royalty acquisitions whilst rotating onto exploration campaigns in Morocco and Egypt, where he supported a suite of generative Au and Cu-Ag projects.

Graduate Geotechnical Engineer at AECOM

Ellie is a Graduate Engineering Geologist at AECOM in Swindon. She started as a Trainee in Summer 2023 and has worked on over thirty mid to large scale projects within the Ground Investigation team since joining. Much of her site experience is on rail projects, but she has worked on a number of large-scale brownfield redevelopment and greenfield survey projects.

Offshore Geophysicist at Gardline Ltd. & Undergraduate at University of Portsmouth

River is an Offshore Geophysicist with Gardline Ltd (Boskalis), currently based in Norwich. Working offshore, River uses a mixture of geophysical data (sonar, magnetometer, seismic to produce interpretations of site surveys & seabed features. They have worked on a mixture of renewables, cable route/pipeline surveys, UXO, and Oil and Gas projects during their time with Gardline Ltd. River is typically working in the North Sea, with their most recent endeavour on a new windfarm development off the coast of Hornsea.

Senior Geotechnical Engineer at GDG (Venterra Group)

Lucy is based in Edinburgh as a Senior Geotechnical Engineer at GDG (Venterra Group). Lucy recently moved into this role after just over six years at her previous company, Fairhurst. Lucy has experienced a blend of site supervision, design work and project management on projects including St Helena Rockfall Mitigation Scheme, Cross Tay Link Road Geotechnical Design and the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment Scheme.

Vice Director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanchang Institute of Science and Technology

Awei Mabi, PhD, is the vice director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanchang Institute of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree in geology from Chengdu University of Technology in June 2019. His main area of interest is to study the tectonic evolutional process covering the eastern Tibet plateau, the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), and the Yangtze Block.

PhD Student at Cambridge University

Ayesha is currently finishing up her PhD in isotope geochemistry constraints on early Earth mantle differentiation events at the University of Cambridge. Prior to starting her PhD Ayesha completed her MSc and BSc in Canada and worked as an geologist in northern Canadain several green and brownfields exploration projects for various mineral deposit types.

Ayesha will also represent the ECN on the Science Committee (starting June 2025) and is keen to support the ECN in their activities and make recently graduate geologists aware of the opportunities and support the Geological Society can provide.

 Outside of academia Ayesha enjoys hiking, cooking, and a good knitting project. Post-PhD she is keen to re-enter the mineral exploration industry as a geologist.

Senior Analyst at CRU International

Alex joined CRU International as a Multi-Commodity Analyst in 2021, before which he worked as an Exploration Geologist for a private equity group with global interests. In this role he gained over two-and-a-half-years' experience in the mineral exploration industry. He has worked on projects across multiple jurisdictions, including Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Montenegro and Arizona, and was exposed to several different deposit types and commodities, including gold, zinc, lead, silver, nickel, copper and cobalt.