Not everyone is in tune with Hannah Rudd’s passion for the Great white shark, but as the marine scientist and communicator explains, statistically speaking she has more chance of dying by falling out of bed than as the result of an attack from the animal tainted by jaws.

It goes beyond just the experience of cage-diving with Great white sharks and snorkelling along coral reefs in the Maldives with whale sharks for Hannah. She has studied sharks in hotspots across the world and continues to advocate for their conservation through her research and communications work. She was also selected as a South African Shark Conservancy Women in Shark Science scholar in 2019, is founding director of Leading Marine Women (an organisation to inspire and connect women in marine science) and she is also a Sharks4Kids ambassador and campaign coordinator for the Youth for Our Planet environmental pressure group.

Hannah (Natural Sciences, 2018, Lonsdale), who also works as the Policy and Advocacy Manager for the Angling Trust, says: “I love sharks and appreciate their value in our ocean. I empathise with how misunderstood they are and I can identify with that, as a young woman, it’s easier to be sympathetic to the plight of ‘friendlier’ animals such as pandas, elephants and whales. However, sharks are killed barbarically but because of their reputation, their story doesn’t resonate with the public as much.”

Her commitment to championing marine science which she began developing by writing a science blog at Lancaster University, attracted the attention of publishers Bloomsbury, who signed her up in 2020 to a deal - within two years of graduation - to write a book about marine life.

Clear and straightforward though that may seem, the same clarity does not apply to Hannah’s path to successful graduation at Lancaster. She had been shark mad for years before coming to Lancaster. She set out doing geography, then changed her course three or four times, via environmental biology and biological sciences, until she suddenly realised that natural sciences offered her exactly what she needed because of its People and the Seamodule and the facilities at the Lancaster Environment Centre.

Her inspiration was Professor Christina Hicks, who encouraged her to study for an MSc: “She was incredibly inspiring both as a lecturer and as a woman in the field. The course itself really emphasised our connectivity with the ocean through the range of ecosystem services it provides us, from food security to cultural significance, rather than just being about the usual heartbreaking statistics. So many people come to university and think that whatever they have chosen is their pathway for life. Who would have thought that I would begin in geography and end up as a marine scientist?”

She found staff very open to questions and supportive when she had decisions to make. Despite the small number of marine scientists at Lancaster, they were very keen to help her find her direction.

Her supervisor knew she was keen to write, so she took over the compilation of the LU Biological Sciences blog. This ignited a love for science communication, which was picked up by an editor at Bloomsbury, who began following her writings at Lancaster, and last year signed her up to write a book in partnership with the Wildlife Trust, with a working title of ‘Living Seas’ planned for publication in 2022. It’s an all-encompassing guide to the UK seas and how to explore and protect them.

She had been captivated by the beauty of the campus on her first visit, for its leafy and open feeling and proximity to Morecambe Bay. That feeling continued as a background to an active social life, playing for the University cricket team, working for the Student Union as a retail assistant and volunteering for Green Lancaster.

Although she was mad on sharks and spent her free time watching shark documentaries, she thought she needed to test her calling as a marine biologist before she

officially started her Master’s as she had no in field experience. She volunteered with White Sharks Project in Gansbaai, South Africa after her graduation and fell in love with white sharks whilst observing them in their natural environment and participating in the company’s educational programme. It was a life-changing experience, which confirmed her career decision and led her to study whale sharks in the Maldives with the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme. But the Great white shark stole her heart, and she’s since been back three times to South Africa to get her shark fix.

Hannah was also was selected to be a part of the Women in Shark Science scholarship programme operated by the South African Shark Conservancy. This allowed her to

explore another passion - encouraging more women to consider a career in marine sciences. "I remember being that kid mad about the ocean and not knowing where to look for information or not seeing women frequently represented in documentaries. There was a period when I questioned whether I could even pursue my dream”, she says.

As a freelancer Hannah loves the freedom it gives her to be creative, but sees herself in the next five years moving more heavily into shark research by embarking on a PhD as well as doing more communications work through broadcasting and maybe writing another book - none of which she believes would have been open to her without Lancaster’s

flexible foundational approach. Hannah is also co-leading a new UK shark research collaboration, Shark Hub UK, which has exciting projects on the horizon.

“Lancaster was life changing,” she muses. “Without the core of what I did at Lancaster, I would not have done what I am doing now. It has been the window for everything that has followed. It was not just professionally that I grew, it was also personally. I discovered the person I did, and did not, want to be and it was at Lancaster where I built foundations for my desire to explore the world and give our planet a voice.”