A FLINTSHIRE photographer has celebrated her recent achievements after being crowned science photographer of the year.

Sue Flood has won first prize in the climate change category of the Science Photographer of the Year competition, run by the Royal Photographic Society in association with Manchester Science Festival.

The mold woman is an award-winning wildlife photographer and filmmaker, zoologist, adventure travel leader and public speaker.

Under a new partnership with Anglesey-based green energy and waste management company – Orthios – Sue will deliver a programme of talks to schools and other organisations.

She will also and photo-document the company’s work to make the former RTZ/ Kaiser Aluminium smelting site at Holyhead, Anglesey, a hub for innovative approaches to waste recycling, clean energy production and carbon neutral industry.

Welcoming the arrangement, Orthios CEO Sean McCormick said: “Sue’s international travels, initially as a BBC Natural History Unit filmmaker and more recently as one of the world’s best nature photographers, mean she has witnessed at first hand the impact the climate emergency is having on wildlife and wild habitats.

“Her images illustrate exactly why Orthios is so determined to contribute to reducing pollution and enabling sustainable living and the tie-in with Sue will help us to spread this message.”

“We also admire what Sue’s own story says about such determination. As a child, she set herself the ambition of working with Sir David Attenborough and pulled it off – collaborating with the broadcaster on many occasions during her 11-year stint in the BBC’s Natural History Unit.”

Sue Flood has already begun taking photos at the Orthios site including some of the world’s most advanced polar research vessel, RSS Sir David Attenborough, currently using Orthios’s deep water jetty as a base for training and sea trials.

COVID-19 restrictions have prevented an on-board visit but Sue is presenting the ship’s company with signed copies of her two books 'COLD PLACES' and 'EMPEROR: THE PERFECT PENGUIN', featuring images she has captured during the many trips she has made to the Arctic and Antarctic regions the RSS Sir David Attenborough will explore.

Two of Sue’s polar images can be viewed online from now until May 2 as part of a virtual exhibition of winning and commended images for the RPS’s Science Photographer of the Year competition. Further examples are also viewable at www.sueflood.com.

Details of Orthios’s education/outreach programme are still being fine-tuned but any school or organisation interested in taking part is invited to register an interest by emailing info@orthios.com.