Meet the Team: Dr Sam Clarke

Sam Clarke began his academic career intending to become a physicist. He had a longstanding interest in science, and in its practical application in particular, valuing the way it allowed him to understand and explain the physical world. He went to Cambridge to study natural sciences, a course that does not permit students to specialise in physics alone, requiring instead that four sciences be studied in the first year.

"I went there wanting to do physics, but you have to take a maths module alongside it," he explains. "That meant choosing two further subjects, so I added an evolution module and Earth sciences."

It was the final choice that proved most significant. Earth sciences became the subject that held his attention, in large part because of its breadth. The discipline spans geology, ocean science, atmospheric chemistry, palaeontology, and sedimentology, and offered the kind of applied, observable science he had been seeking.

"Earth sciences is a really broad subject," he says. "If you want to go out into the field and actually say something about the world around you, it is hard to beat."

He specialised over the course of his undergraduate degree, and on completion was offered a PhD at Cambridge under one of his lecturers. The doctorate, in Earth Sciences, applied geological analysis to a problem of considerable scale. Working in an area relevant to long-term planning for radioactive waste disposal, Sam examined how geology can be modelled across exceptionally long timescales, in some cases up to a million years. His contribution was to bring a geologist's understanding to work that had largely been approached from a mathematical and engineering perspective, where rock tended to be treated as a uniform material rather than the variable substance it is in practice.

That approach, applying geological understanding to practical and physical problems, became a consistent theme in his work. It also drew him towards large infrastructure projects and operations he could observe directly. Alongside this professional interest, he had a longstanding personal interest in the maritime sector, having grown up around boats and sailing.

His route into Brookes Bell came through a combination of that interest and circumstance. Contacts working in maritime law had worked with the firm previously and spoke highly of its scientific division. Sam approached Martin Jonas, the scientist team leader, directly. Jonas responded the same day and arranged a call. Having kept the firm in mind through the latter stages of his PhD, he joined the team earlier this year.

Three months into the role, he is building experience across a broad range of cargoes, shadowing cases as they arise. His specialism is likely to settle around cargo liquefaction and mining products such as ores, concentrates, and coals, the area most closely aligned with his background.

"A lot of what a PhD gives you is the ability to get up to speed on something quickly," he says. "You have to be flexible, because work comes in and you field it. But the cargoes I am drawn to are the ones that connect back to the things I already find interesting."

Want to speak to Sam? You can contact him here.