Ross MacAnespie

When I was at school, I knew what type of course I wanted to study, so that naturally narrows down where you can study. I was very quickly taken by the University of Edinburgh for my undergraduate course in Geology and Physical Geography (now BSc (Hons) Earth Sciences and Physical Geography). Although, initially, I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to do straight Geology or Geology and Physical Geography.

I went to the Open Days and spoke to the lecturers, and I met some other peers who ended up being my friends. I was really inspired by what I thought I could get out of the experience and what I could learn there.

I suppose I always knew I wanted to study that type of degree because of my background, as I'm naturally interested in the outdoors. I’ve always done rock climbing and to me, geology and rock climbing made sense because I was always interested in what I was climbing up.

The course I chose was just fantastic. There was a good mix of people on my course and the lecturers were fantastic. The types of courses that we got to study, and the field trips we got to go on, were second to none. I've spoken to people who have done similar degrees at other universities. They didn't get the same level of field trip experience that we did. They were always very jealous of that.

I was initially on the MEarthSci for my Geology and Physical Geography degree, but in fourth year, I decided that I wanted to do a specific masters programme. I was looking at masters around the world, open to move anywhere, but then I saw that there was the GeoEnergy masters at Edinburgh.

Maybe I was slightly biased because I knew the lecturers, but I don't think there was anywhere else that came close to the quality of staff that were at the University of Edinburgh and would be lecturing on that course. I thought I'd really be shooting myself in the foot to go somewhere else because I had this opportunity right at my front door. I was quite lucky for that.

In my undergraduate degree, I studied radioactive waste management as part of one of my courses. One of the ways that you can store radioactive waste is geologically. You can store it underground. I did projects on this and was really interested in it. When I graduated from my masters and was looking for a job, I ended up getting one partly because of that niche experience. I worked for the nuclear policy industry, and that got me in the door there.

My experiences in that role were focused on regulation of the industry, and that was a segway for me to get more into energy regulation more broadly; how energy markets are regulated and how they work rather than the physical reality of how we generate electricity. My GeoEnergy masters was all about that – getting energy from the earth as well as other technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage and large scale energy storage.

From there that takes me to where I am now at ESB, where I’m a regulation analyst. We work on how our business interacts with the energy markets. For example, how we sell the energy we generate through markets such as the Capacity Market, Balancing Market etc, and, importantly, how we do so within the strict rules of the markets. 

Something that helped me get my first job was one of my lecturers from my masters, who had offered to coach people in interviewing.

I'd finished my masters and Professor Mark Wilkinson had a call with me and was very supportive and helpful. I think he was able to coach me in a way that helped me get my first job. He had a big influence on helping me kick start my career - the staff have gone above and beyond, really. They have lots of students to deal with, and they don't really have an obligation to do that, but they did.

Read Professor Mark Wilkinson's research profile

A big part of my life at university was the Edinburgh University Mountaineering Club. It had a massive influence on my life and I met a lot of friends and my wonderful wife through it. My most memorable times at university are through that club and it did a lot to form my life there.

There are lots of societies and clubs out there and you should really look around and try a few out. I certainly did try a few and didn't fit with some of them, but I just clicked with the Mountaineering Club, so it was great, and there's something for everybody. You need to have life outside of your studies.

You do a lot of presentations and speaking in front of other people throughout the degree. Sometimes that can feel laborious, but the reality is that when you get into work, you research something because someone wants to know the answer. Then, you make a presentation, and you present it to them. That is such a key skill whether you like it or not. Being able to stand up in front of people and speak, and produce a concise, coherent presentation, this is very important.

On field trips, we'd often be given the opportunity to stand up and explain what we interpreted a rock exposure to be. These are the building blocks for being able to do that in front of a senior team of people who are relying on you to provide them with useful information. 

An additional skill is meticulous note taking, so whether that be on field trips or in classes, you need to be able to quickly keep track of what people are asking you and telling you, because it's fine when you're at university to say, ‘oh, I didn't get that’ or ‘can you repeat that?’, but sometimes when you're in a meeting with important people, you don't really want to be doing that. Being able to keep track and not having to go back and ask again is important.

I didn't find the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate particularly difficult because I felt that it was a logical progression from my undergraduate. It was more challenging and there was more expected of you, but that's to be expected. It's not unreasonably harder than your undergraduate degree. My advice to someone who is apprehensive about going into a masters, is don't be daunted by it; because if you've graduated to a point where you qualify for a masters, you should have the skills and the ability to do it. However, don't be naive because you will have to work hard.

Be very open minded and talk to everybody if you're new to somewhere. If you've come to Edinburgh from another university, there'll be people like myself who’ve done an undergraduate there and already have friends. There's plenty of friends to be made in Edinburgh.

For my masters, I looked at the potential for storing hydrogen in geological salt caverns under the North Sea. I studied it as a mechanism to store energy that would otherwise have been curtailed from renewable sources to act essentially as a big chemical battery. It was quite niche but has gained a lot of traction, and I have actually been able to use some of the facts and figures I learned from my dissertation in my work. Recently somebody asked me for some statistics and I could’ve sworn I used the source in my thesis. I dug it out and found the source, and I was able to link it to them.

Some advice would be to pick something you're interested in, because you're going to spend a lot of time doing it. Say you're looking at something that's quite niche, like I did and you think, ‘well, I don't see where I'm going to use this’, you might be surprised where that comes in useful. I was really happy with what I ended up picking, but I know of people who had not given it enough thought. That's a mistake, you need to really think about it and make sure that you're going to be interested in it. Make sure that you can see yourself getting into the detail.

Rewarding – in an academic sense because my life has been shaped by what I have studied, and I've been rewarded for the work that I put in by being able to have interesting opportunities.

Challenging – anybody who goes to university, particularly to do a masters, and doesn't think it's going to be challenging, is naive or incredibly clever. It’s challenging for a reason.

Interesting - it was intellectually fulfilling as well. It was nice learning stuff everyday, it was really well presented and interesting. 

Inspiring – on a slightly less academic note, because you’re surrounded by a lot of ambitious people, that rubs off on you. You surround yourself with good people. That's a good philosophy for life.

Memorable – every time my friends and I meet up, there's always something that happened at university that we laugh or talk about.

It was hard work, but it was good fun, and it was all worth it in the end.