I accidentally fell into geothermal over a decade ago, and never escaped. Geothermal is like that.
I’m drawn to working in the enthusiastic community, where researchers, industry, government, Māori and consultants all come together seeking a common goal of increasing the use of a renewable and local energy source. And I like soaking in hot pools.
Working with scientists. Learning cool things. Seeing research have areal world impact.
I am a big picture person who loves to designing research programmes to address real world problems and opportunities. I especially enjoy exploring barriers and solutions for having a positive future impact. I often inhabit the interface between science and policy, or research and implementation, and am highly collaborative.
I don't publish many journal papers, so this one came as a surprise, and was a fun piece of work too.
Climo, M., Milicich, S.D. White, B. 2016. A history of geothermal direct use development in the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Geothermics, 59B, 215-224.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2015.07.004
What was the research finding?
This paper was a comprehensive review of New Zealand’s direct use of geothermal energy, i.e. using the heat, rather than turning it into electricity.
Why is it important?
There was a lot of information out in the public domain on historical and current applications and uses, but no single point of reference, until we worked on this paper.
Where are you?
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, USA.
What are you doing?
Exploring the geothermal features. Though not technically working, this visit did inspire a NZGW conference paper on different country’s approaches to geothermal tourism and what NewZealand could learn from the USA and Iceland. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to goto Iceland in the name of research, a co-author provided that information.
Read more about Melissa's experience here.