And that's my story! Stay tuned for updates about my work.

In future I'm hoping to scale up my work for deployment at demonstration and commercial scales, to make a real impact in decarbonising industry...

I've started lecturing and supervising postgrad projects, and as an early career researcher I've been awarded my first grant as a PI, and I've worked on several international projects with academics, governments and industries alike...

I graduated from my PhD in 2017 and immediately became a postdoc, which pretty much takes us up to today. My focus has shifted from hydrogen to volatile fatty acids and biopolymers, and the scale of my research has increased, but the principles are the same...

During the course of that PhD I published three articles on using electrochemical means through which to enhance hydrogen and volatile fatty acid production from the fermentation of wastes...

I applied, and despite no background in fundamental biology or chemistry, was accepted and I embarked on jut over three years of PhD study...

By another happy coincidence this coincided with the University of South Wales's centenary, which was marked in part by the award of PhD scholarships, one of which was in hydrogen production from waste...

Having graduated with a distinction I was immediately employed by a local renewable energy SME. An immediate change of management there however turned us into a sales company and I began to miss the university environment...

I spent the next 12 months enthralled by the course. I actually applied myself and took pride in developing my maths skills in particular, as well as strengthening my grasp of the scientific method as a toolkit, and not a bunch of facts to remember for exams (Thanks, again, Mrs. M)

By happy coincidence, the EU wrote to UoG alumni in 2011 saying that they'd identified Rhondda Cynon Taff as "deprived" and as such were offering funded MSc courses to UoG alumni in RCT to better their opportunities... One such course was MSc Renewable Energy and Resource Management...

I matured a bit over the next couple of years and began reading pop science books about the energy-resource-environment nexus out of inherent interest and enjoyment...

Hiring prospects for below average geography students in South Wales weren't GREAT then (or now), so I got into my 1997 Honda Civic and became a travelling guitar tutor. I enjoyed that but it wasn't going to buy me a better car, let's put it that way...

My aptitude for A Level geography didn't really help me in my BSc studies, and I had to retake a year, meaning I graduated with a 2.2 after four years in 2009...

Beyond becoming a rock star ("stop daydreaming, Rhys") (thanks, Mrs. M), I had no idea what I wanted to "do" with my post-education life so I just went to university (of Glamorgan) because I could...

My pathway to becoming a postdoc researcher was fairly unconventional... I went to university aged 18, in 2005, to study physical geography and geology because I had "an aptitude" (thanks, Mr. B) for geography at A Level...