With Dr. Christian Spring, STRI
Through the work of Dr. Christian Spring, Principal Scientist at STRI Group, we’re going to share some valuable insights on the role of science in sport. To set the scene, STRI is a globally renowned consultancy and research business that services the turf and sports surface industry. Whilst STRI’s global headquarters can be found nestled in the countryside of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, it also has a base in Australia, principally working out of Melbourne. The team at STRI works on a wide range of sports and projects in a wide range of sports facilities from planning, designing, building and maintaining, with all of this being built on the foundation of science, engineering and research. Science truly is at the core of STRI’s DNA.
As part of the wider STRI Group, it is joined by a host of other companies offering a range of services to both the sports and urban environments. These include The Environmental Protection Group, which specialises in integrated water management, SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems), green infrastructure, contaminated land and ground gas management, as well as building waterproofing. Another key STRI Group company is Carrick Sports Construction. As their name suggests, their primary area of operation is taking designs and making them a reality. They are involved with building all types of sports surface, but increasingly getting involved with landscaping and green infrastructure projects.
Now over to Dr. Spring….
So how did I become embedded in the turf and sports surface industry, on a path that has seen me working for STRI for the past 18 years? Well, like any good story, it all starts in childhood. As a boy I was always fascinated with nature, the environment and how the natural world works – I suspect this is the origin story for many scientists around the world! This meant that I had an interest and aptitude for science, which was spotted by teachers who fed this hunger for knowledge and understanding.
Growing up, through school and University, I have always had a passion for natural/life sciences such as biology, chemistry and physical geography. This culminated in doing a BSc degree in Environmental Science at the University of Stirling in Scotland. During this time, I got bitten by the bug, that bug being soil science. For some reason, what happens beneath our feet really spoke to my inner curiosity and I was hooked. It also meant I could indulge my natural interest in biology, chemistry and physical geography – all of which are key to understanding the soil ecosystem. Soil science may not be seen by many scientists as sexy, but it is vital for those involved with industries growing crops, be they wheat, potatoes, grazing grass or sports turf.
This passion for what goes on under our feet is what pushed me to postgraduate studies. After completing my degree in Environmental Science, which gave me a broad understanding of global, regional and local natural and human-modified environments, I embarked on a Soil Science based PhD, again at the University of Stirling. I have to say, it is a tough call as to my favourite location to live, Scotland is a beautiful place with fantastic people and I spent a very happy nine years immersed in life there. However, just edging it is Yorkshire and in particular, North Yorkshire where I currently live and have done for the past 15 years. However, I am digressing so back to the task at hand, how did I find myself working at STRI?
The answer is simple, luck (some may call it fate). After completing my PhD and post-doctoral contract projects, I needed to find a career. I wanted to work in applied science where the outcome of my work could have direct impacts in the field. As it happened, whilst I was scouring the scientific press I saw a job advertised at the Sports Turf Research Institute based in West Yorkshire. The role was STRI Soil Scientist working in the Soil Physics department. I hadn’t even considered sports surfaces and their need for soil scientists, but the job description intrigued me and I applied. Fortunately for me, I had an interview and was lucky to be offered the job, which I did not hesitate to accept. Yorkshire here I come!
Starting at STRI opened my eyes and my imagination to the possibilities of using my scientific skills to help advance the understanding and design of sports surfaces. In my role, I was heavily involved in designing, running, and reporting on research projects that focussed on design and surface performance. This took me on a tour of all the sports surface types that STRI now works on, ranging from football, rugby, golf, tennis, cricket, horse racing and equestrian surfaces (turf and all weather), greyhound racing and Gaelic sports. As my knowledge of sports surfaces grew on how they were designed and built and the impact of this on their operation and performance, I wanted to understand the bigger picture of how these surfaces worked agronomically and what might we need to do differently in the future.
This set me on the path of building my understanding of surface management techniques, integrated turf management, pest/weed/disease issues, turf nutrition, the environmental impact of managing turf surfaces and how do turf and sport surface managers design, build and operate our surfaces in the most sustainable way. This entailed running over 100 research projects, and fascinating it was too. This has turned me into the passionate “sand and turf geek” I am today and drives me to understand how and why we do what we do and how can we make it as sustainable as possible.
At the heart of my 18 years at STRI has been the need to link what we do and how we understand our surfaces with science and research. Science is truth and enlightenment and with this powerful knowledge we can truly understand what we do, why we do it, and the impacts we have. Science allows us to understand the past and the present whilst shaping the future from a position of knowledge and understanding.
And this is where I find myself today, as STRI Group Principal Scientist. This means I help to provide scientific support to all aspects of the business. Looking at what we do now and how can we pull together the knowledge we have and use it to shape the design, build and operation of sports surfaces, built environments and green infrastructure in the most sustainable way. Key to this is bringing together science and knowledge and communicating that among colleagues and with the wider world. Not bad for a kid who liked to play with bugs in the dirt patch in the back garden!
