Research Scientist Alice Sai Louie loves being outdoors and being able to care for Papatūānuku. Her job lets her do both.
When I was a child, I had all sorts of ideas about what I wanted to be when I grew up: freeride skier, sculptor, carpenter, food technologist, baker, bike courier, urban farmer, and meteorologist. I’ve managed to pursue all these interests in my spare time – alongside finishing off my PhD.
I’ve always loved designing and making things. At school it was physics and maths that clicked, but I kept being pulled back to outdoors to be in the elements.
I moved to Ōtautahi in 2013 to be closer to the mountains and study engineering geology. After my bachelor’s degree I worked at a geotechnical engineering consultancy for five years during the Canterbury earthquake rebuild.
I always found the most fascinating part of the job was the groundwater component – it had this mysterious element to it. I then started studying a master’s in water resources and hydrology at IHE Delft in the Netherlands, but covid cut that short. So, I returned to Canterbury and got offered an amazing project working on the subsurface processes in braided rivers project at the University of Canterbury.
What does your job involve?
My job is the perfect balance of challenge and creative thinking. It is very interesting and certainly keeps me on my toes!
It involves a mix of writing science journal papers, coding, data visualiation, geospatial analysis, proposal writing, attending conferencing and workshops, learning, and thinking up new ideas – and finding funding to make them happen!
My specialty method involves using fibre optic cables that are thinner than a human hair! I connect these to a machine which shoots lasers down the cables, and sometimes another machine that heats the cables. From the resulting temperature signals, I can study groundwater movement.
I’ve installed cables in various configurations, including beneath braided rivers to study river loss. I’m also interested in applying this method on existing fibre optic telecommunication networks beneath cities to monitor shallow groundwater.
What do you enjoy about it?
I really enjoy that I have freedom to think outside the square. I get to explore my many whacky ideas, bridging technology and environmental science.
I’m motivated by having fun, being outdoors, and my awesome friends. I really want to make a meaningful contribution to deepening our understanding of natural processes so that we can better care for Papatūānuku. My job lets me do that.
What is the best thing that’s ever happened to you?
Probably floating down the Grand Canyon for a month looking at rocks during a particularly cold polar vortex, when we had to float our gallon water cannisters in the river to stop them from freezing. Or quitting my adult desk job to be a ski patroller – there’s nothing quite like hurling explosives off cliffs to trigger avalanches!
If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
