Job satisfaction is something Hannah Chalmers knows about. As a research assistant in the mechanical engineering department at Imperial College London, her work into carbon capture and storage (CCS) could affect climate change. “This is not just something on the news for me to worry about,” Chalmers says. “I can go to work and know that if what I’m doing turns out right then it can make a major contribution to sorting out the problem.” This is no exaggeration. CCS is the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) normally released into the atmosphere by fossil-fuel powerplants, and the safe storage of it in geological formations underground. It has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90 per cent.

“I regularly speak to the powerplant companies in the UK,” Chalmers says. “The oil and gas industry are already thinking about CCS and how they can use the geology that’s there. As an academic I’m there to push boundaries, look at the way that you inject CO2 into your storage formation and research what happens when you start doing these projects for real.”

Chalmers' “day job” might be office-based – much of her time is spent generating ideas, computer-based modelling and getting to the point where the content makes enough sense that industry can run with it. However, her role also extends to public speaking and she has presented her research to people in the industry, other academics and MPs.

It is this intellectually stimulating environment and ability to be creative that first attracted Chalmers to such a career. “At school I enjoyed science but I also enjoyed the practical design-type things,” she explains. “The reason I chose engineering is because I thought it would let me combine the technical and science in a way that I could use creatively.” The undergraduate research that she did during her mechanical engineering degree at Imperial led to her present job and she also has close links with the Centre for Environmental Strategy in Surrey, where she is completing a PhD.

“Since I’ve been working in this field CCS has appeared in a much bigger way,” Chalmers says. “We’re at the point where people realise that this problem exists. If all the political noises turn into reality this area should grow massively over the next few years.”

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO