Dr Gemma Davies wasn’t expected to go to university – none of her close family ever had.

“My parents are very practical and worked hard but had few academic qualifications. While they were always very supportive, they placed no academic expectations on me. I was very middle of the road at primary school but thanks to a good secondary school and the positive influence of friends around me, went to sixth form and applied to university.”

This week Gemma will graduate with a PhD, not for a single piece of research, but for a series of published papers reflecting research she has been involved in over the past 18 years in her role as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) support officer at the Lancaster Environment Centre.

“Back then I never dreamt of doing a PhD. It has taken me a long time to blossom and get any confidence. I’ve been given a huge opportunity, helped by very supportive colleagues.”

Her special praise is for Professor Duncan Whyatt, who introduced her to GIS when she was an undergraduate studying Geography at Lancaster University. GIS - which captures, analyses and visually presents spatial and other geographical data - was then in its early days.

“GIS suited my problem-solving logistical brain and I liked the spatial aspect of it,” said Gemma, who did an MSc in International Development at Durham University after graduating. She then applied for a job back at Lancaster using GIS to support teaching and research. Duncan began involving her in the projects he was working on.

In 2007, Duncan asked Gemma if she could help on a collaborative research project to understand the school journey. Part of this involved tracking how children in Lancaster are exposed to air pollution while walking to school.

“I got involved in the GPS tracking and the air pollution modelling and ended up doing much of the analysis. We were able to show what routes children were taking and what routes they should take to reduce their exposure to pollution. I went to Duncan and asked if I could have a go at writing the paper and he encouraged me: I ended up as lead author. That was really the start of my research journey. It helped to build my confidence in what I was capable off and opened doors for me to get more involved in other things.”

Gemma suggested a spin off project, using the same methodology but expanding from 20 routes to thousands and involving many more variables such as day of the week and time of day, and even which side of the street the children walked on, and how steep the street was. Gemma had her second paper.

More research projects followed. Gemma worked with ecologists looking at how street lighting affects urban bats, who won’t cross a space between groups of trees if the lighting is too bright.

“Our work enables urban planners to understand the impact of the decisions they make. It hit the international press and has been highly cited in other research.”

Her next project took her further afield, to the Brazilian Amazon, working with Dr Luke Parry on urban food insecurity. Gemma helped to develop a remoteness index for urban centres in the Amazon, as well as explore the presence of food deserts in a selection of urban centres. Later she worked within the Belfast Mobility Project, looking at the impact of segregation on people’s movement, and how street patterns might encourage or discourage mixing.

“Somewhere in the middle of my working on the Amazon project, Duncan suggested the idea of doing a PhD by Published Work. It was a model I had never heard of. You take your existing publications and accompany them with a supporting paper which your contribution to a given field of research.”

Identifying that common field took time. Gemma found the process helped to her understand how her thinking had developed. She realised that all her research centred round connections and movement through space - “whether it’s about how you move to minimise exposure to pollution, how to connect bats’ habitat or how connected people are to food supplies or to each other.”

She is hugely grateful to Duncan “for believing in my abilities long before anyone else (myself included), and for the endless encouragement he has provided along the way.

“Duncan gave me opportunities to work on many of the projects he was involved with. I have lost track of how much feedback I have received from him over the years, usually in the form of his famous red pen. He was the one who encouraged me to work towards this PhD by Published Work, long before I would ever have dreamt of pursuing it.”

Gemma now teaches GIS, including co-teaching the course she was first taught by Duncan. She is already exploring new research projects and would like to get more involved in international development research.

She thinks the PhD by Published Work model opens opportunities to other people who, like her, would never have imagined they could do a PhD. “I’ve not had to quit my job to do a PhD or had to do it on top of my work: all of the research has been done as part of my job, I’ve been paid to do it. It’s been a huge bonus.”

Learn more about doing a PhD at the Lancaster Environment Centre.