Hi there!

I’m Rob Hayes, and this is my site documenting my various projects/travels from my geoscience research to my hobby coding projects. Below is my CV. A PDF version is also linked here.

CV

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Employment

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1. Technical Operations Officer

   June 2024 - Present

   British Ice Skating, Sheffield, UK

   Deploy computers for skating competition judging, create databases for competitions, and write code to assist in these tasks.

   Highlights:

   • Develop desktop applications using Python to streamline competition management, using libraries including PyQt6, FastAPI, numpy and Pandas/Polars.
   • Manage and maintain a large variety of IT and audio-visual equipment, and deploy said equipment in challenging conditions at events.
   • Effectively prioritise administration tasks, including event scheduling and database management.
2. Postdoctoral Researcher

   February 2023 - February 2024

   Friedrich Alexander Universität, Erlangen, Germany

   Researched sediment flux in Early Mesozoic successions.

   Highlights:

   • Reconstructed paleoenvironments from fluvial deposits using data collected from fieldwork and drill cores.
   • Designed efficient work flows using ArcGIS Pro and Python to increase sediment flux modelling iterations by a factor of 10.
   • Wrote tools to leverage AI image recognition for the analysis of grain size distribution in thin sections.
3. Graduate Assistant

   August 2018 - January 2022

   Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, USA

   Delivered teaching of practical sessions in geoscience subjects to classes of 20+ undergraduate students, graded assignments and handled student concerns.

   Highlights:

   • Taught lectures and labs in sedimentology to undergraduate classes, in addition to teaching general classes to non-geoscience majors.
   • Organised field trips for up to 50 students, including ensuring health and safety of students was properly managed, receiving more than 80% positive feedback during student evaluation.
   • Balanced multiple parallel projects, including student engagement, examination and academic research projects.
   • Handled student concerns and complaints in accordance with university guidelines on privacy and safeguarding.
4. Machine Learning Research Project Assistant

   June 2019 - August 2019

   Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, USA

   Contributed to training of machine learning model investigating links between volcanism and climate change. Results of study published as cover article of November 2022 edition of GSA Today.
5. Lecture Note Taker

   October 2017 - May 2018

   University of Leicester AccessAbility Centre, Leicester, UK

   Prepared lecture notes on a variety of subjects to assist students with additional learning access requirements.
6. Paleoclimate Lab Assistant

   January 2017 - May 2017

   Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, USA

   Processed 600 samples of lacustrine sediment for Loss On Ignition analysis, managing and organising sample records.

Education

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1. PhD of Geoscience

   August 2018 - January 2022

   Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, USA

   Earned a doctorate of Geoscience from the University of Arizona studying under Prof. Pete DeCelles, researching the Triassic paleogeography of western North America.

   Highlights:

   • Graduated with GPA of 3.9.
   • Developed specialist knowledge of fluvial sedimentology through extensive fieldwork and literature research.
   • Measured more than 6 km of sedimentary logs at fine scale detail and collected more than 5,000 paleocurrent measurements to build paleogeographic reconstructions of the southwestern US.
   • Earned a total of $27,000 grants and scholarships from Geological Society of America, Arizona Geological Society and University of Arizona.
2. MGeol Geology with Palaeobiology

   September 2014 - July 2018

   School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Uinversity of Leicester, UK

   Earned an integrated master's degree in geology with palaeobiology, completing a thesis on the behaviour of plastic subjected to geological processes under the supervision of Prof. Sarah Gabbott.

   Highlights:

   • Graduated with First Class Honours.
   • Performed extensive labwork, including pyrolysis GCMS and infinite focus microscopy
   • Performed principal component analysis and other parametric statistical tests on complex textural datasets using R and SPSS.
   • Won East Midlands Geological Society Beryl Whittaker Award for best dissertation.

Volunteering

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• Organised junior education section at Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in 2020 and 2022, interacting with hundreds of guests at the largest gem trade show in the world. Operated successful event with very limited budget.
• Acted as Audio/Visual technician for GeoDaze 2022, a geological conference held at the University of Arizona, ensuring the smooth operation of technology during presentations.
• Served as treasurer for the Association of Women Geoscientists (AWG) Southern Arizona Chapter during 2021 and 2022, managing funds and creating an automated system for reporting budgets to the central AWG organisation.

Publications

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