Charlie Button
Charlie's Story
What is your role at Ricardo?
Although I am a terrestrial ecologist at Ricardo, I frequently join the aquatic ecologists, my role entails ecological surveys and reports, from fish to newts!
What does your average day at Ricardo look like?
There isn’t really an average day as an ecologist, each week can vary massively, one week you could be on the Thames surveying invertebrates, the next you could be classifying habitats and writing up the report and the next you could be collecting water samples to test for great crested newt DNA. In short, an average day at Ricardo could entail so many different things, which is why I love it.
What do you look forward to at work?
I love survey work, I love native reptiles and amphibians and any work that surrounds them, I also love heading out on the boat with my team to survey invertebrates, more recently I have really enjoyed fish surveys. I always look forward to heading out with the Ricardo team regardless of where we are.
What do you find most rewarding at work?/Are you proud to work at Ricardo?
The most rewarding work for me is the work that has a direct, positive impact on real problems, for example, work with water companies to provide them with water quality, fish and invertebrate data to enable them to enact positive change. My own latest personal achievement was receiving a signature towards receiving my great crested newt (GCN) licence, sadly, there wasn’t too much celebration as I joined the course on a Wednesday!
How have you developed your career at Ricardo?
Since joining Ricardo, I have had many opportunities to develop my knowledge and thus advancing my career, from GCN training, Morph river training and lots of new ecological surveys and methods to attending my first CIEEM conference, Ricardo is happy to support every opportunity I see to advance.
What advice would you give to anyone considering a career as an Ecologist?
Take every opportunity, be it survey, report, or training. Ecology is a vast science that requires experience in so many different areas and scenarios, use every single experience to expand your skill and passion.