The National Decommissioning Centre has celebrated its first PhD graduate, Dr Jessica Gomez-Banderas, who graduated on Monday, 26 June.

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Jessica, from Danestone, Aberdeen, completed much of the work towards her remarkable achievement during the difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She researched compounds produced by marine invertebrates and their use in preventing a build-up of marine life on subsea structures for her PhD in Chemistry. Thousands of tonnes of marine fouling can accumulate on these structures causing damage which is challenging and expensive to repair as well as decommission.

She explains: “My research looked at trying to find a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution to biofouling of oil and gas structures. There are solutions used already and while they solve one problem for industry some have been known to be harmful to biodiversity and could cause more problems down the line by getting into the food chain. I looked at alternatives by studying the compounds produced by invertebrates. It was interesting as I found some compounds that we didn’t know these invertebrates were producing and some did have antifoulant properties.”

NDC Director Professor Richard Neilson added: “Completing a PhD is an extraordinary achievement and the fact that Jessica is the first from the NDC is very special. On behalf of the team at the NDC I’d like to congratulate Jessica on her graduation and wish her every success for her future career.”

Jessica is now working as a Research Scientist in Environmental and Analytical Chemistry at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.

See more pictures and read about Jessica’s incredible research and journey to her PhD through a global pandemic here – Protecting Scotland’s watercourses (abdn.ac.uk)

Follow graduation ceremonies live here – https://fal.cn/3zode

Notes for Editors