I am a highly skilled and accomplished researcher with a strong background in polymer sciences and afocus on developing plant growing media. I obtained a BEng (Chem) and a BEng (Chem) honours degreewith distinction from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 2012 and 2013, respectively, and aMEng (Chem) with distinction in 2016 in the field of polymer processing. In 2016, I was selected for acompetitive PhD at the University of Sheffield in the UK, where I developed a novel polyurethanegrowing media for use in high-value horticulture. My PhD work has been presented at internationalconferences and has resulted in four publications. I graduated in 2021. In addition to my formal PhDwork, I have experience in science outreach and dissemination and have been involved in severaluniversity-hosted events. Since completing my PhD, I have been working as a Research Associate on aBBSRC grant, focusing on integrating beneficial microbes into polyurethane media to increase thedisease resistance of tomato crops. During this time I have also informally supervised students (sevenmasters students and a summer student) and have been awarded my first grant as PI (£4000 pumppriming), and have been part of the team that was awarded an Innovate UK KTP grant with my role asDeputy Knowledge Base Supervisor (£280k). My research expertise includes analytical chemistry,formulation chemistry, statistical analysis, supervised machine learning, hydroponic system design,and plant growth phenotyping. Additionally, I am an advocate for the development and use of low cost,open-source hardware and software.