A STUDENT from Culcheth is helping to fight climate change after securing a place at the University of Cambridge to study a doctorate in chemistry.

Claire Wombwell, aged 22, has started work on using hydrogen as a clean alternative to coal and oil.

She is living at St John’s College, which is celebrating its 500th anniversary this year.

Its former residents include nine Nobel Prize winners, six prime ministers and three Saints.

Claire went to Priestley College where she gained A-levels in chemistry, law and psychology as well as two AS-levels in physics and history.

She went on to get a first class masters degree at the University of Sheffield and spent a year studying in Australia at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.

Claire said: “It is wonderful to be given the opportunity to carry out my PhD at a world-leading research university.

“It is very inspiring to be among some of the greatest minds within my field and I look forward to taking the opportunities this will present to me.”

She had planned to study in Manchester but when her supervisor, Dr Erwin Reisner, won the chance to lecture at Cambridge, he requested that she go with him.

Mark Salmon, personal tutor from Priestley College said: “Claire continues to excel and fully deserves the tremendous opportunity she has.

“No doubt she will act as an inspiration to other students to aim high and achieve their goals.”

Claire is studying a PhD in inorganic chemistry and will be a doctor when she finishes her three-and-a-half year course.