My name is Leila Battison. I’m currently a DPhil researcher in Palaeontology and Astrobiology based in Oxford, UK. In my spare time I pick up a pen and draw, and occasionally can be tempted to pursue other artistic occupations.
My PhD is in early life Palaeontology and Astrobiology – I look for fossils in the most ancient rocks on earth, and use them to understand how and where we might find life in space. The fossils I work on are more than ten times older than dinosaurs, and 100,000 times smaller. Exciting stuff. For more reasons why my PhD is cool, check out Science. As well as working on my Phd, I also teach Earth Sciences, Evolution, Astrobiology, Biology and Geography, to various levels when the opportunity comes along.
Artistically, I seem to have an aversion to colour. I mainly produce illustrative artwork, a pursuit which has led to my participation in the production of Bang! the Oxford student science magazine.
I write popular science articles on a freelance basis, and have written for the BBC, the Aberdeen University Science Magazine, and of course, my Witterings blog, here.
If you want to contact me, book me, or continue to digitally follow me in an entirely non-creepy way, you might also like to find me on:
Twitter @leilabattison
