Kirstie Jones-Williams, 28, is currently leading a citizen science project in Antarctica. She lives in Cambridge

MY ALARM GOES OFF…

At 5.30am when I’m here in Antarctica. It then takes half an hour to actually get out of my two expedition sleeping bags, into seven or eight layers of clothing and out of the tent. We camp on the ice, which makes it a bit harder to get out of bed than it is back in Cambridge. I listen to something super upbeat to get myself going, maybe some German techno.

I’M RESPONSIBLE FOR…

Five citizen scientists who volunteered for the Airbnb Sabbatical programme. It’s my job to teach them how to collect scientific data in a polar environment – and then lead them out on the ice in order to do so as we seek evidence of microplastics beneath the surface in deep Antarctica. Citizen science is fantastic because it allows us to demystify the process and bring our work closer to the mainstream.

I GOT MY JOB…

After dreaming about working in Antarctica since childhood. As soon as I finished my  first degree – environmental geoscience at the University of London – I emailed every polar institute in the world asking if they had any data  I could help analyse. My  future supervisor picked up on one of those speculative notes, I got my foot in the door and never looked back.

Meet the woman researching polar microplastics in Antarctica