Casey Beel has always been curious about how things work: river systems, lakes, alpine systems…. Growing up in Dunedin, Casey was well aware of University of Otago's reputation as a research centre. As his interest in “how things work” focussed more on the outdoors he came to appreciate the quality of research in Otago's Geography department, and that's where he studied for a number of years.
“The research in the department is excellent, we had heaps of field trips to the Catlins and to Aoraki/Mt Cook which was really good, and the supervisors are great as well which is important once you get to research projects at postgrad level. I did a few social geography papers early on, but really I've been pretty focussed on the science side of things.”
Casey got a job as Hydrological Technician at the West Coast Regional Council, only months after completing his Masters degree at the end of 2010. He is part of a team responsible for checking water quality and water table levels, managing surface water levels from Karamea to Haast.
“There are four of us in the team: 2 technicians, 1 hydrologist and a water quality scientist. So I'm getting loads of experience, loads of opportunity to upskill and learn stuff. I've learned heaps already! This is the perfect playground for a hydrologist, although there hasn't been much rain so far. The job is amazing but I'm really keen on research so I think I'm working towards coming back to Otago for a PhD.”