Ruth Swetnam

"Ruth is a professor at a university where she lectures in Geography and Landscape Science, as well as carrying out research in this area.Ruth is quite outgoing, a bit of a people-person and she loves to enthuse to others about the amazing world we live in! She carries out research and reports back on her findings, which fits with the ‘Investigator’ and ‘Explorer’ types. She is also self-motivated and has very high standards and, as the ‘Coordinator’ type, strives to develop that in her students too. As a lecturer Ruth has to be able to get up in front of lots of people and deliver talks confidently. She is also cooperative and enjoys working as part of a team. Science is collaborative and international, so the outgoing side of her nature helps to foster this."

"Ruth is a professor at a university where she lectures in Geography and Landscape Science, and carries out research in this subject.As an academic and researcher at a university, Ruth teaches undergraduate Geography and supervises master’s and PhD students. This role is varied and includes lots of field-based teaching, laboratory teaching, lecturing, tutoring and teaching Geographic Information Systems skills. She may be running a soils practical, lecturing or holding small-group tutorialsAlongside this, Ruth is an active research scientist pursuing research into landscape science and spatial analysis. She could be on site carrying out tests and measuring, or reading and writing up her research. She will work out how the land can be best used, and if it is suitable for the intended projects – housing, transport, agriculture, wind farms, parkland? Her work is used by governments to evaluate their land management schemes and her teaching helps others to achieve their employment goals in the field of Geography and Environmental Science. Research is the thing that really keeps her excited. She is currently working with computer games designers to engage younger people in her landscape quality work. How cool is that?! "

"Ruth trained and took her degree in Geographic Information Science which is basically computer mapping and is quite technological. She has always loved maps and this really allowed her to flourish. She worked as a digital data analyst for the National Remote Sensing Centre and then spent 15 years working for the government as a Geographic Information Systems specialist. She was working in ecological research and this allowed her to really develop her technical programming skills. She learned how to plan projects and conduct big research projects, and, most importantly, how to write them up. She did a PhD in historical land use change and the application of Geographic Information Systems technology while she was working for the Natural Environment Research Council. After that, she was lucky to get a funded research position in the Zoology department at Cambridge University which provided her with the necessary academic background to move into academia, first as a full-time researcher then more recently as a lecturer and academic. She was promoted to Associate Professor of Geography in 2014 and has recently been made a full Professor of Geography"

"Ruth is a keen walker and loves to get out into the beautiful Peak District National Park as much as possible. She is also a very keen gardener and has quite a big plot to tend. She likes to travel and enjoys attending cultural events in her city. She is also a fully-qualified yoga teacher!In the past, Ruth has had the opportunity to work abroad. As a geographer this is key! The outdoors is her laboratory, and she loves to explore new landscapes. Her most memorable workplaces have been Tanzania in East Africa and more recently, Iceland.In the future, Ruth may well move back out of academia to work for an environmental non-governmental organisation. She has done lots of collaborative work with bodies such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Wildlife Trust in the past and would like to apply herself in that field too."

"I have to interact with lots of different groups of people - students, colleagues and researchers elsewhere. Typically, I will spend some of my day on face to face teaching. This may be in the laboratory, running a soils class or an IT practical or in a lecture theatre. University teaching is different from school - we do more small group teaching in tutorials and seminars. As a geographer, fieldwork is also very important I can be out all day taking my students to explore landscapes and to collect data. I am responsible for organising field kit, health and safety, driving and the teaching, so its quite demanding. In amongst, I do have to do University adminstration. This may be marking student work, giving feedback or writing new courses. I do have to read lots of information quickly and respond accurately. Learning to touch type was one of the most useful skills I have acquired as an adult: I do a lot of computing and need to be able to code. My day is quite demanding and fast-paced and often not entirely predictable. I do spend some time each week in meetings discussing student work or my own research. "

"I took a range of subjects at 16: English Literature, English Language, Maths, German, Biology, Chemistry, Geography and Environmental Science. After that I did 4 A-levels: Geography, Environmental Science, English Literature and General Studies. I worked very hard for my A levels and secured a place to study Physical Geography at Sheffield University. From there, I did a specialist Masters degree in Geographic Information Systems which secured me my first GIS analyst role with the Natural Environmental Research Council where I stayed for 15 years. Whilst there, I did a part-time PhD in Geography which then enabled me to secure a research position at Cambridge University in the Conservation Science Group. I then moved into my academic job 7 years ago."