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Anne Barber

Trainee forecaster, The Met Office

Degree details

  • BSc in Mathematics

Tell us about your overall experience while studying at the University of Liverpool

I started my three year degree in Mathematics at Liverpool in 2008. The degree as you might expect was challenging; yet I thoroughly enjoyed my three years and discovered that the field of mathematics is more diverse than you might think. Liverpool itself is a fantastic city to live in, with its abundance of art and culture, nightlife to suit all tastes (one which I haven’t found rivalled yet in any other UK city) and a great music scene.

What did you think of your Mathematics Course?

Towards my final year I decided to specialise in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, studying modules such as quantum mechanics, relativity and chaos and dynamical systems. Whilst I had always harboured an interest in the weather since school geography lessons, the chaos module really made me think about the possibility of a career in such a topic. After graduating I decided to apply my mathematical skills to the area of meteorology, so I moved onto Birmingham University to do a postgraduate degree in Applied Meteorology and Climatology. Here the skills I learned in Liverpool proved very useful when learning about the fundamental physical laws of the atmosphere, and how numerical modelling systems are created.

Can you describe your current role?

I am currently employed at the Met Office working as a trainee forecaster hoping to be qualified by the end of the summer. The Met Office, despite its slightly intimidating position as being a world-renowned company, offers an extremely friendly work environment — I’ve already made some friends for life in the short time I’ve been there. It is a very challenging career, but one that seeks to get the best out of you, and it offers plenty of exciting travel opportunities. When I am qualified I will be working as a civil forecaster in Aberdeen, however many of my colleagues will be forecasting at military stations around the UK. It’s worth pointing out that forecasting is not the only possible career within the Met Office or indeed the wider meteorological community- there are plenty of opportunities for people with strong mathematical and programming backgrounds as the area of weather forecasting is increasingly moving towards advances in numerical weather prediction

Do you have any top tips to share with future and current students?

A degree in maths can literally take you anywhere — yes it teaches you to solve differential equations and perform operations on matrices (and so forth…), but fundamentally more than that, it teaches you to think logically and reasonably and to solve problems — something that any employer will find valuable.