So, here you are thinking you’ve achieved quite impressive things in your career and along comes Professor Tina Soliman Hunter, whose proudest moment is surviving a jump from a broken helicopter onto an oil rig in the North Sea, and living to tell the tale.

“Picture me rolling around on a helideck with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament – not a pretty sight!” she laughs.

Thankfully the incident is a brief blip in an otherwise highly impressive career as someone who has straddled law and earth science to become a foremost authority on petroleum, energy and natural resources law.

1. Something people always ask you when they find out what you do for living
When I tell people that I am a professor of petroleum, energy and natural resources law, it is usually met by dead silence. Often there is no coming back from that. I am never sure whether it is the area of specialisation, or the fact that no one would even imagine I could be a professor. Either way, I am not offended!

2. A moment you felt proud
When I was appointed a Professor of Earth Sciences at Tomsk State University’s Biological Institute in 2019. The Russians rarely bestow such an honour on a Westerner, so it was a real privilege to be awarded this position.

3. Something you’d like staff to know about
I am the Director of a research consortium (CRENAME) that comprises primarily of Russian universities and Russian researchers. I am the only law academic on the team, which comprises scientists and engineers. It’s a truly multidisciplinary team that also includes people from Macquarie.

4. Something you or your team have recently accomplished
Wearing my other hat as an Earth science academic, I have recently published two papers that have nothing to do with law. As part of the CRENAME Consortium, we have published a paper on cleaning oil from aquatic sediments in Russian Oil fields, and another on microplastics in a Siberian River.

5. A person you admire at Macquarie, and why
Professor Vladimir Strezov in Earth Sciences – we work together in the fields of microplastics and oil contaminants, and also hold a mutual interest in hydrogen and lithium. It is excellent how we can work together in a multi-disciplinary manner on projects which include other Macquarie researchers and partners from Russia.

6. The first person you go to for advice
Professor Ross Buckley at UNSW. I was his Research Assistant 2003-4, and assumed he thought little of me. About 10 years ago, he would randomly send career advice, which I followed to the letter, and it worked. If I need academic advice, I go to him. He is currently my mentor for my Future Fellowship application, and he has promised to be brutal!

7. Something you’ve read recently that has had an impact on you 
Elizabeth Macarthur life at the edge of the world by Michelle Scott Tucker – absolutely brilliant. I am a huge lover of Australian history and fascinated by women in the early colony. Elizabeth Macarthur fulfils both of these interests.

8. A website or app you can’t live without
Google Keep! It is brilliant for keeping all of those tiny titbits of crucial information.

9. A personal quality you value in others
Honour.

10. What you need to do your best work
Opportunity. The more opportunity I have, the more creative I can be!