Margot is a PhD student in the field of Biogeochemistry at ANU. Her research examines how industrialisation and climate change have impacted toxic metal pollution in the Australia-Pacific region. She uses mercury and other toxic metals in lake sediment records to reconstruct pollution trends and transport mechanisms from mainland Australia to the sub-antarctic Macquarie Island. She will also explore using mercury isotopes and diatoms to reconstruct Southern Hemisphere Westerly wind patterns from the last 10,000 years. This will be used to disentangle anthropogenic emissions from those caused by climate change.

Margot completed an Honours degree in biochemistry at the ANU. Her research focussed on the impacts of fire regimes on eucalypt chemistry. She then worked at the Atlas of Living Australia at CSIRO, working on improving the quality of open access data before starting her PhD, focussing on mercury.

Margot is interested in interdisciplinary work, and enjoys applying this to her PhD.