hi this is me (about prose and contact)
Hi, my name is Jenn and I wear many hats. I am:
An Expedition diver and logistics co-ordinator at Inkfish Expeditions.
Director of Dive Project Management at Global Underwater Explorers.
A GUE Open Water and Performance Diver Scuba Instructor.
In my ‘spare’ time, I am an analog astronaut, a biospeleology diver for NGO Phreatic, and an ambassador for Avatar and Blue Abyss. My dream is to become an astronaut.
PAST EXPEDITIONS and DIVING:
In 2022, I was immersed in the OceanX Red Sea Decade Expedition, in conjunction with KAUST, National Geographic, and other institutions. I helped to organise and co-ordinate the project, logistics, transportation, permits and outreach. In addition, I spent ~11 weeks on the OceanXplorer directly, as a scientist in the eDNA, deep sea corals and megafauna teams.
This expedition experience led me to gain the 2022-23 GUE NextGen Global Scholarship - in which I embarked on a self-made diving immersion: from behind-the-scenes astronaut training at NASA, to ecosystem surveys in the Middle East. Now, I work for GUE HQ directly in their Exec Committee.
Ever keen to bridge the oceans and the stars, I was a past summer school student at ESA (European Space Agency) where I led a project on limpets in space, and am a current ambassador for next-gen testing facility Blue Abyss. In 2025, I took part in an analog astronaut workshop at LUNARES Poland, gaining experience in EVAs, science in space, and analog mission design / architecture.
ACADEMICS and SCIENCE:
I have a Zoology degree (with first class honours) from the University of Manchester; not only studying animal behaviour, cardiac ecophysiology and circadian rhythms, but also Mandarin, British Sign Language, and a MOOC in Human Spaceflight from KTH (allowing me to think about bio-mimetic applications for space missions). During this time, I fell in love with ocean conservation (after previous fieldwork in jungle and desert ecosystems). Here during undergrad, I designed a long-term monitoring study of Bush Karoo rats in South Africa for which I became an Honorary Research Fellow.
My BSc thesis examined the longevity of Greenland shark cardiomyocytes, and I started both scuba diving, and volunteering for sea-space agencies. In addition, I have a MSc in Marine Ecosystems Management from the University of St Andrews, with experience in computational ecological modelling, GIS, and biologging. A thesis trip to Antarctica was cancelled due to covid, but the fieldwork was revived in 2022.
Now, my learning continues through developing online learning modules for GUE Open Water, being a biospeleology volunteer diver through Sardinian NGO Phreatic, and participating on expeditions with Inkfish as a marine scientist all over the world.
journal articles
published
Agnani, P., Thomson, J., Schradin, C., and Careau, V. (2020). ‘The fast and the curious II: performance, personality, and metabolism in Karoo bush rats’, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 74(10), 123-137.
Wolhuter, L., Thomson, J., Schradin, C., Pillay, N. (2021). Life history traits of free-living bush Karoo rats (Otomys unisulcatus) in the semi-arid Succulent Karoo Mammal Research, 67, 73-81.
Phillips, A., Walsh, C., Grayson, K., Penney, C., Husain, F., and Women Doing Science Team (2022). Diversifying Representations of Female Scientists on Social Media: A Case Study From the Women Doing Science Instagram. Social Media+ Society, 8(3), 1-17.
in progress
Morphological and Histological features of the Greenland Shark Coronary Circulation (Yaar, S., Thomson, J., Gurney., A., and Shiels, H.)
Metagenomic Insights into Red Sea Biodiversity Across the Tree of Life. (Hempel, C.; Laiolo, E.; and other authors).