Studying archaeology as part of an undergraduate degree led Helen directly to the field of Conservation.  She worked on excavations in Roman London, Bristol’s waterfront and the wilds of upper Teesdale before moving to Toronto.

Helen moved into objects conservation when she joined the staff of the ROM in 1987 to work on the conservation of arms and armour for the new European Gallery.  After many years of increasing involvement with environmental control and materials testing, she became the ROM’s first Preventive Conservation specialist in 2006.

In her time at the ROM Helen has been involved with everything from armour to plastics to textiles and ethnographic material, but now focusses on climate control for objects on display and in storage, pest control, and safe materials for use in the conservation and display of the collections.  She has a particular interest in indoor air quality – not just temperature and humidity, but air pollutants and particulates and their effect on artifact materials.