“We took my portrait in my office with a view over the rooftops of Cambridge and space to include a framed photograph that has academic and personal significance. The photograph is of two 1-metre sections of a sediment core from Haelemsee, in Northern Germany, which includes three volcanic ash layers, although only one is visible to the naked eye. We collected the core ten years ago during the first of a series of summer schools for Early-Career Researchers studying past climate dynamics, which I established with my partner Stefan Engels.

I snuck two Easter eggs in, without thinking, as one I wear every day. I’m wearing two pieces of jewellery, each inherited from one of my grandmothers. They were brave, loving, bright and adventurous women.”

Christine is a Geochronologist and Quaternary Geographer researching the mechanisms, timing and environmental impacts of past climatic change and explosive volcanism. Christine studied Geology at the University of Cardiff, then completed a Masters in Quaternary Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a DPhil in Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford.

In 2016 Christine became Professor of Geography and established the Cambridge Tephra Laboratory. The Cambridge Tephra Laboratory specialises in volcanic ash (tephra) approaches to dating and correlating records of past climate conditions, environmental change, human evolution and volcanic hazards. Between 2014-19 Christine was Chair of the INTegrating MArine, Ice core and Terrestrial records (INTIMATE) network; one of the leading communities in palaeoclimate research. She is an Associate Editor for the journal Geoarchaeology.