I completed my BA (hons) in Geography and MPhil in Holocene Climates at the University of Cambridge working within the Cambridge Tephra Lab. After this, I worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge, University of Leeds, and Royal Holloway, University of London before starting my PhD.
Current Research
Distal volcanic ash layers can be used to provide absolute chronological control for sedimentary records and improve explosive eruption histories. I am working within the CAVES project (https://caves.web.ox.ac.uk/) to produce marine tephrostratigraphic records for key volcanoes in the North Atlantic (Azores, Canary Islands) that may have dispersed ash towards North West Africa. These ash layers can be found in Palaeolithic cave sites as non-visible cryptotephra layers and used to constrain the timing of environmental and technological change experienced by early modern humans over the last 300,000 years.
Publications
Engels, S., Lane, C.S. & Wilkinson-Rowe, E. How long is long-term? Comparing decadal- and centennial-scale insect diversity dynamics. Hydrobiologia (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-025-05862-w
