When I moved to UiB in 2023, I became part of the SEAS programme, a large interdisciplinary group of marine scientists, political scientists, archeologists, anthropologists and much more, and the opportunity to interact with such a diverse group has been extremely interesting.  My primary research project has been about the Lofoten Basin Eddy (LBE) in the Norwegian Sea.  This is an unusual feature in the ocean: an apparently permanent eddy which doesn't dissipate as most eddies do.  We have long thought that other eddies must merge into the LBE in order to maintain its heat content and energetics, but such mergers are very difficult to observe due to their transient, unpredictable nature.  In this project, we observed a merger for the first time with in situ data from an ocean glider and high resolution satellite date from SWOT, and could thus document how the merger affected the properties of the LBE.

I've also worked on a couple of secondary projects: one about the circulation around a seamount on the South Scotia Ridge in the Southern Ocean, and one about universal design for field-based teaching, which resulted in a practical handbook for educators.

I'm currently doing a 2 month internship at VIS - Vestlandets Innovasjonsselskap, which aims to help researchers and entrepreneurs turn their knowledge and ideas into viable innovation projects and sustainable businesses.

Since moving to Bergen in 2023, I have participated in the SEAS programme's annual meetings, including sessions open to the public, with poster presentations about my oceanographic research and a talk on universal design for field teaching.

In my previous job at the University of East Anglia (UEA), my experiences with outreach began when my research group participated in the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in 2013.  This prestigious showcase of cutting-edge research, technology and innovation takes place every summer at the Royal Society in London, and receives thousands of visitors each year, with exhibits selected through a competitive process.  Our exhibit focused on the use of ocean gliders as platforms for observing the oceans, and on the role of salinity in ocean circulation.

Between 2014 and 2019 I was involved in a series of exhibits and talks at events such as Norwich Science Festival, the Big Bang Science Fair in Sutton and UEA's Environmental Science summer schools, as well as larger showcases of environmental and marine research such as envEXPO and "Discovery in London", a three-day event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Natural Environment Research Council.

In 2016-17, I worked for the UEA Careers Service, setting up an internship scheme for PhD students and postdocs in environmental sciences wanting to explore careers outside academia.  Part of this work involved engaging with the local business community to promote the internship scheme and identify potential employers, and thus I attended and spoke at meetings of the Norfolk Network (a knowledge community for progressive business people), the Local Enterprise Partnership’s Green Economy Hub, and the Hydrographic Society.

In early 2020, I embarked on a series of invited talks on "Observing the Antarctic Seas" to various local groups in Norwich, but unfortunately the covid-19 pandemic cancelled all but the first two events.

For the past three years at UiB, I have been teaching GEOF232: Practical Meteorology and Oceanography | UiB, where students learn about how we measure properties of the atmosphere and ocean. The purpose is to become familiar with current instrumentation, error sources, data handling, quality control, interpretation, and with ongoing developments in observation methods and operational observing systems.  The students work individually or in small groups, come up with their own project ideas, and then develop an observational strategy to test their hypotheses.  During a common observation period, students deploy instruments in the field and participate in a short cruise.  Since I started teaching the course we've developed a strong focus on the students' experience of the research process, incorporating, for example, project proposals, risk assessments, writing and presentation training, data calibration, and conference presentations to peers in a wide range of disciplines.

Before I moved to UiB I was a postdoc at the University of East Anglia (UEA).  I didn't have regular teaching responsibilities there, but was a guest lecturer on courses such as Ocean Observing Systems, Ocean Circulation, and Maths for Scientists, and also a lecturer on the Slapton Field Course.  This is when all the first year students (about 150 students) in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA go to the Slapton Field Centre in south Devon for a week.  The students divide up into groups of about 10 and rotate through a range of different environmental science-related practical activities, from mapping wind patterns around a promontory to assessing the ecology of a stream bed.  I was running four of these activities, including energy fluxes into/out of a lake (by canoe!) and assessing the oceanography and biogeochemistry of the estuary of the River Dart.  A fun - if exhausting - week!

Also at UEA, I ran a week-long training course on ocean gliders for three years, 2017-2019.  (In the terminology of the Natural Environment Research Council, this was an "advanced training short course" or ATSC.)  The course covered the fundamentals of glider operation, the range of sensors available and thus the variety of science one can do with gliders, the basics of deployment, recovery and piloting, as well as practical activities on glider maintenance, sensors, and troubleshooting.

Damerell, G.M., Bosse, A., and Fer, I. (2025) Merging of a mesoscale eddy into the Lofoten Vortex in the Norwegian Sea captured by an ocean glider and SWOT observations, Ocean Science, 21(6), pp.2763-2785. https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-2763-2025.

Dotto, T. S., Sheehan, P. M. F., Zheng, Y., Hall, R. A., Damerell, G. M., & Heywood, K. J. (2025). Heterogeneous mixing processes observed in the Dotson Ice Shelf outflow, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 130, e2024JC022051. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JC022051

Ben Fisher, Katharine Hendry, Gillian Damerell, Chelsey A. Baker, Millie Goddard-Dwyer, Siddhi Joshi, Alice Marzocchi, Anna Nousek-McGregor, Carol Robinson, Katie R. Sieradzan, Alessandro Tagliabue, and Katrien Van Landeghem (2023) Challenger Society for Marine Science: Increasing Opportunity Through an Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility Working Group, Oceanography, 36, 150-151, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2024.110

Anna Nousek-McGregor, Ben Fisher, Chelsey A. Baker, Carol Robinson, Gillian M. Damerell, Cecilia M. Liszka, Sophie Fielding, and Pilvi Muschitiello (2023) Fair Winds and Following Seas Remotely: Modifying Perceptions of Fieldwork as a Requirement in Marine Science to Aid in Diversifying the Discipline, Oceanography, 36, 74-76, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2024.131

Oelerich, Ria; Heywood, Karen J.; Damerell, Gillian M.; Du Plessis, Marcel; Biddle, Louise C.; Swart, Sebastiaan. (2023). Stirring across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current's southern boundary at the prime meridian, Weddell Sea, Ocean Science, 19, 1465-1482, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-1465-2023

Sheehan, P.M.F, G.M. Damerell, P.J. Leadbitter, K.J. Heywood, R.A. Hall (2023) Turbul.ent kinetic energy dissipation rate and associated fluxes in the western tropical Atlantic estimated from ocean glider observations, Ocean Science, 19, 77–92, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-77-2023.

Oelerich, R., K.J. Heywood, G.M. Damerell, A.F. Thompson (2022) Wind-induced Variability of Warm Water on the Bellingshausen Sea Continental Shelf, Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, 127, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JC018636.

Wang, Y., K.J. Heywood, D.P. Stevens, and G.M. Damerell (2022) Seasonal extrema of sea surface temperature in CMIP6 models, Ocean Science, 18, 839–855, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-839-2022.

Stevens, B., et al., (including me, but there were more than 200 authors so I’m not listing them all here) (2021) EUREC4A, Earth System Science Data, 13, 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021.

Damerell G.M., K.J. Heywood, D. Calvert, A.L.M. Grant, M.J. Bell, S.E. Belcher (2020) A comparison of five surface mixed layer models with a year of observations in the North Atlantic, Progress in Oceanography, 187, 102316, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2020.102316.

Binetti, U., J. Kaiser, G.M. Damerell, A. Rumyantseva, A.P. Martin, S. Henson, K.J. Heywood (2020) Net community oxygen production derived from Seaglider deployments at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain site (PAP; northeast Atlantic) in 2012-13, Progress in Oceanography, 183, 102293, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2020.102293.

Rumyantseva A., S. Henson, A. Martin, A.F. Thompson, G.M. Damerell, J. Kaiser, K.J. Heywood (2019) Phytoplankton spring bloom initiation: The impact of atmospheric forcing and light in the temperate North Atlantic Ocean, Progress in Oceanography, 178, 102202, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2019.102202.

Hall R.A., B. Berx, G.M. Damerell (2019) Internal tide energy flux over a ridge measured by a co-located ocean glider and moored ADCP, Ocean Science, 15, 1439-1453, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-15-1439-2019.

Damerell G.M., K.J. Heywood, A.F. Thompson, U. Binetti, J. Kaiser (2016) The Vertical Structure of Upper Ocean Variability at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain during 2012-2013, Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, 121, 3075-3089, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JC011423.

Buckingham C.E, A.C. Naveira Garabato, A.F. Thompson, L. Brannigan, A. Lazar, D.P. Marshall, A. J. G. Nurser, G.M. Damerell, K.J. Heywood, S.E. Belcher (2016) Seasonality of submesoscale flows in the ocean surface boundary layer, Geophysical Research Letters, 43, 2118-2126, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068009.

Thompson, A.F., A. Lazar, C.E. Buckingham, A.C. Naveira Garabato, G.M. Damerell, K.J. Heywood (2016) Open-ocean submesoscale motions: a full seasonal cycle of mixed layer instabilities from gliders, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 46, 1285-1307, https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-15-0170.1.

Hemsley, V. S., T.J. Smyth, A.P. Martin, E. Frajka-Williams, A.F. Thompson, G.M. Damerell, S.C. Painter (2015) Estimating oceanic primary production using vertical irradiance and chlorophyll profiles from ocean gliders in the North Atlantic, Environmental Science & Technology, 49, 11612-11621, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b00608.

Frants, M., G.M. Damerell, S. Gille, K.J. Heywood, J. MacKinnon, J. Sprintall (2013) An assessment of density-based fine-structure methods for estimating diapycnal diffusivity in the Southern Ocean, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 30, 2647–2661, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-12-00241.1.

Damerell G.M., K.J. Heywood, D.P. Stevens (2013) Direct Observations of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current transport on the northern flank of the Kerguelen Plateau, Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, 118, 1333-1348, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrc.20067.

Damerell G.M., K.J. Heywood, D.P. Stevens, A.C. Naveira Garabato (2012) Temporal Variability of Diapycnal Mixing in Shag Rocks Passage, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 42, 370-385, https://doi.org/10.1175/2011JPO4573.1.

Since 2022, I have chaired the EDIA (equity, diversity, inclusivity and accessibility) working group (external link) of the UK Challenger Society for Marine Science, which brings together those interested in improving EDIA across the Challenger Society and marine science in general. We meet once a month on Zoom to discuss ways to improve EDIA across and beyond UK marine science and develop and implement actions where possible.  This has resulted in the development of the Challenger Society's code of conduct for conferences and meetings, EDIA guidance for conference organisers, the completion of an URGE (Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences) pod, as well as modifications to the Society's processes for awards to allow for consideration of the impact that certain protected characteristics may have had on a person's career.  Spin-offs from the working group have included a project on improving equitable access to first-time fieldwork opportunities for early career scientists, and a project on modifying the perception that fieldwork is a requirement for a career in marine science, to aid in diversifying the discipline.

I have also served as a researcher representative on both departmental and faculty-level EDIA committees, including contributing to the successful submission for the Athena Swan Silver Award at the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA.