Ben Smith
I am a Communications Administrator, working mainly for the editorial side of the NERC Communications team. I also maintain the team's financial records to help them keep track of their budgets.
A major part of my job is managing the distribution of NERC's main publications - such as the award-winning Planet Earth magazine, leaflets and brochures about our science programmes and our Annual Report. I keep our mailing lists up to date and distribute the publications and other information to huge variety of people, organisations, schools and libraries around the world. Requests for these resources have doubled in the last three years.
I provide support for a very popular and successful training course that helps NERC-funded researchers explain their science in a way that everyone can understand, and shows them how to get their science into the news.
One of the more exciting parts of my job is dealing with an interactive display called 'The Magic Planet' which we use at public events. This is a computerised spinning globe which demonstrates what will happen to the Earth during various climate scenarios, and shows the movement and direction of ocean currents and the tracking of hurricanes as they form and move around. I manage the event bookings for this display and provide training for the staff who need to use it.
My job is interesting and varied, there is always plenty to do and I'm always learning something new, so my interest in science has increased since I started working here.