After studying astrophysics out of interest, Dr Pickard moved to advanced composites, motivated by a desire to apply her physics knowledge to solving practical problems which would be useful to society.  Advanced composites are vital for sustainability, but manufacturing practices remain very energy intensive, her goal is to change this. 
Dr Pickard carried out an Engineering Doctorate at the National Composites Centre through the Industrial Doctorate Centre in Composites Manufacture, which included collaboration with a range of industrial partners and a secondment with the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.  Her work included use of active process control to reduce energy consumption during manufacture, the first demonstration of in-situ X-ray Computed Tomography during composite cure- used to track defect evolution- and studies of knowledge transfer between academia and industry.  
Since then Dr Pickard has worked at Bristol Composites Institute on cure by electromagnetic induction, funded by the EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing Hub, and biomimetic, hierarchical composites for improved performance under compression through the EPSRC funded NextCOMP programme.  
Dr Pickard now leads an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account project on Energy Efficient Cure by Electromagnetic Induction.
She also leads the Bristol Composites Institute work on Composites for High Energy Physics, in collaboration with CERN and Bristol Particle Physics.  
Dr Pickard supervises both postgraduate and undergraduate students on a range of research projects.  She has significant teaching experience, including curriculum development, and is Unit Director for Principles of Design for Manufacture of composites.