Rachael completed her doctoral degree at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, with a focus on trace element geochemistry of coastal Antarctic ice cores. Rachael then moved to Oregon State University, USA for postdoctoral research developing ultra-high resolution records of atmospheric methane variability in the past. A Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at University of Cambridge brought Rachael back to the UK in 2015. She was subsequently awarded her first academic position at Northumbria University.
In 2019, Rachael returned to Cambridge as a University Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences and now teaches at all levels of the Earth Sciences course within the Natural Sciences Tripos. She particularly enjoys introducing students to the curiosity-driven nature of geological fieldwork.
Rachael is a member of the European Geosciences Union, American Geophysical Society and collaborates with many international colleagues through Past Global Changes (PAGES) working groups. Thanks to a secondment at the journal Nature Geoscience in 2018, Rachael is now an Editorial Board Member at Communications Earth and Environment.