But for Alex, the Excellence in Achievement Award for Recent Environment Graduates is more than professional recognition. It marks the culmination of a 13-year connection to Cranfield that helped shape her identity as an environmental scientist, a leader, and a collaborator.
“A great honour — and the consolidation of 13 remarkable years”
Receiving the award, Alex says, feels special in a way that is both personal and profound.
“The four years I spent at Cranfield were some of the best of my life. They grew me as an individual - professionally, academically and personally. I formed lifelong friendships and relationships that have been instrumental in getting me to where I am today.”
Since graduating, she has worked closely with Cranfield to elevate future talent by supporting group projects, funding consultancy work, co-creating research collaborations with water companies, offering placements and dissertation opportunities, and returning as a guest lecturer.
“This award really consolidates all those experiences as both a student and a professional. Cranfield has given me so much, and I’ve always tried to give something back in return.”
“Speak to everyone. Be open. Be inquisitive.”
Alex remembers her first day at Cranfield with clarity - the nerves, the excitement, and the unexpected friendships that would go on to shape her life.
“Some of the people I met that first day are now my closest friends, and many of the lecturers I met then are still people I speak to regularly. The diversity of people at Cranfield creates a unique experience that stays with you long into your professional life.”
Her advice to new students is rooted in that memory. “Speak to everyone. Be open and inquisitive. You’ll learn and do things you never expected.”
And her most vivid, if not exactly favourite, memory? “Being dragged onto the CSA stage with two friends to sing ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ by a drag performer. We were the only ones who knew the song… so she targeted us. Mortifying, but unforgettable.”
A career shaped by soil, water and possibility
Alex’s relationship with Cranfield began with the MSc in Land Reclamation and Restoration, a course that ignited her fascination with soil, water and the interactions between land and people.
“I’m not sure I’d be where I am now without that course. The practical and industrial experience was unlike anything I’d have found elsewhere. The group project was a highlight - and it led directly to job offers.”
Returning for her PhD, she found enormous freedom to explore new ideas. Her doctoral work on filter socks to reduce runoff under extreme rainfall laid the foundation for innovation in nature-based solutions and opened the door to her first industry position immediately after graduation.
When she later moved into a leadership role at Severn Trent Water, her career accelerated quickly. She became a principal scientist responsible for environmental strategy across the business, developing new approaches to phosphorus offsetting with farmers, shaping long-term regulatory plans, and overseeing environmental stewardship initiatives that supported the company’s biodiversity and net-zero ambitions. She was a key figure in the Environment Division and helped to guide strategic planning for programmes worth tens of millions of pounds.
Along the way, she achieved Chartered Environmentalist status (at the time the youngest person ever to do so) and became an active member of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers and the British Society of Soil Science.
Leading natural capital for the Devonshire Group
Today, Alex brings together science, land management and strategic leadership in her role at the Devonshire Group. She has responsibility for embedding environmental ambitions across every aspect of the estates’ operations, ensuring that natural capital thinking becomes a core part of everyday decision-making.
Her work involves assessing the estates’ natural capital assets in detail, valuing and monitoring them using data-driven methods, and designing interventions that enhance nature while supporting the people who live and work on the land. She develops estate-wide strategies, leads land-use change projects, and creates business cases for nature-based interventions and emerging environmental markets.
No two days look the same. One day she might be modelling carbon sequestration in upland peatlands; the next she’s walking fields with farmers, designing soil conservation measures, or presenting natural capital plans to estate leadership. But every part of the role, she says, feels purposeful. “Cranfield has been instrumental in helping me get to where I am. I absolutely love what I do.”
Pride, purpose and passion
Alex is proudest of the tangible impact of her work - projects that restore landscapes, protect waters, support biodiversity and create resilient environments that will outlast her.
She also finds huge joy in education. She continues to provide STEM opportunities for young people, mentor students, support Cranfield’s cohorts through placement and thesis opportunities, and guest lecture on MSc courses.
Her heroes are those who champion evidence-based environmental change - academics, colleagues, and leaders across environmental science and engineering who have dedicated their careers to protecting the natural world.
Advice for the next generation
Her message to today’s students and graduates is rooted in her own journey, “Be open. Be curious. Build relationships. And embrace the opportunities you never expected - because they might just shape your life.”
