Following a BSc in Botany at Bristol University, Eileen’s PhD research focussed on diatoms, a highly successful group of eukaryotic, silica-walled, essentially unicellular algae that occur in almost all illuminated, aquatic habitats. Following a Postdoctoral research fellowship in Oxford, she held a Royal Society European Exchange fellowship, working with the Biologische Anstalt Helgoland Litoralstation, List/Sylt, Germany, before undertaking research on benthic diatoms with the Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Plön (Holstein), first in north German lakes and subsequently in a stream system in Hessen. Returning to the UK, Eileen was a research associate at the University of Sheffield, before obtaining a NERC Advanced Research Fellowship. In 1992, she moved to the Natural History Museum, London, as a researcher, becoming Head of Postgraduate Studies in 2007, in this role she has led the development of a broad training programme for PhD students at the NHM.
