Meet Clare Butler-Ellis

People:

Clare Butler-Ellis

How agricultural engineering chose Clare Butler-Ellis

Landwards interviewed Clare Butler-Ellis back in January, this is just a taster but you can hear the whole thing on the Landwards Podcast.

Tell us a little bit about your background?

There was no farming, let alone agricultural engineering in my background at all – I grew up in the West Midlands; my father was a chemical engineer, but I definitely didn’t want to be an engineer ever!

Why did you decide to be an agricultural engineer?

I didn’t – I think agricultural engineering decided it wanted me! I started by doing a physics degree at Leeds University followed by a PhD in theoretical physics.

What was your route into the industry?

Pure chance, really. I wanted to be a mathematical modeller, and ideally modelling something that was very tangible and meaningful (unlike my PhD which was very intangible and, with hindsight, a bit pointless). A

How has being a woman affected your career in ag engineering?

Looking back now, I can see that it has been affected more than I realised at the time. Some of it positively, probably – you are definitely more likely to be noticed in a large group of people if you are a woman than if you are yet another white bloke in a suit.

But some of it negatively, mostly in trivial ways, which is why I didn’t recognise it when it was happening. And of course, you cannot live the same life twice, once as a man and once as a woman to see what the difference is!

“I started by doing a physics degree at Leeds University followed by a PhD in theoretical physics.”

job came up at the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering (NIAE) in maths modelling of milking machines, and I thought I’d give it a go until a proper job came along.

Tell us a little more about your journey following qualifications?

While maths modelling at NIAE I was seconded to the Institute of Animal Health at Compton, working on machine milking and I stayed for six years. Support Unit, on renewable energy projects. It was a terrible job, but had the silver lining that I met my husband. So I left and spent a year working for ADAS in Reading at the Farm Buildings Unit. Another terrible job, so I only lasted a year there. I tried to get moved to ADAS at Wrest Park so that I could carry on after I got married, but they wouldn’t let me, so I left and managed to blag a job back at what was probably by then AFRC Engineering, in the Chemical Applications Group (CAG). When Silsoe Research Institute closed I left again (I keep trying to escape, but I don’t seem able to!) and went to work for the Pesticide Action Network, an NGO in London for a couple of years. Then came back to what was left of the CAG – now Silsoe Spray Applications Unit and took over from Paul Miller when he semi-retired.