Jess completed her BSc in Biology at the University of Aberdeen, where her honours project focused on the impact of agricultural lime on the physical structure of soils recovering from drought conditions. Building on this, she went on to complete an MSc in Soil Science at the University of Aberdeen, which was supported by the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust Centenary Award. During her MSc she broadened her soil science knowledge and conducted her MSc project on the impact of land use change on microbial processes in soil. Jess has a passion for science communication, working for TechFest throughout her studies, and later working as Public and Digital Programme Coordinator at Aberdeen Science Centre.
Jess returned to the University of Aberdeen in 2022 to undertake her PhD which focuses on soil structural degradation on agricultural land in Scotland. This PhD is funded by the Scottish Universities Partnership for Environmental Research (SUPER) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP). During her studies she was fortunate to receive the William J McLean Agricultural Scholarship, which enabled her to extend her research further to include investigation into the stable water isotope signatures of water extracted from soil pores.
Jess became Early Career Committee Chair at the end of 2025, having served on the Early Careers Committee since February 2024. She says that ‘the Early Careers Conference in Manchester in December 2025 was a brilliant experience – it was exciting to see the hard work of the Committee come together, to meet so many EC members, and to find out more about the different projects and research they’re working on. I’m looking forward to continuing to build on the work of the Committee over the next couple of years’.