Profile

CV

• Education:

  I went to a cathedral school for primary school (they filmed some of Harry Potter there) then to two grammar schools for secondary school and sixth form: Denmark Road in Gloucester, and Pate’s in Cheltenham.

  I took a gap year before going to Christ’s College in Cambridge to study Natural Sciences. I took Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science and Maths in my first year, and ended up specialising in Materials Science by the end. My degree had an integrated masters, and my project for that was in medical materials/biomaterials: investigating the drug release from polymers for implants. I then started a PhD in the same research lab as my masters. My PhD was all about collagen and artificial skin grafts (and how we can make them better).

• Qualifications:

  For GCSE I studied the usual core subjects of maths, english, and science. I also took french, german, geography, art and additional maths. We also had to take RS and ICT when I was in school, so it was quite a lot of subjects to cram in. I took my french GCSE in year 10, which meant I got to learn japanese for a year as well.

  At A-level I studied maths, further maths, chemistry and physics, alongside a compulsory general studies AS level.

  Technically my bachelors and masters degrees are both in “Natural Sciences” – though I finished my degree learning only materials science. My PhD is in “Materials Science and Metallurgy”.

• Work History:

  In my gap year and during my undergraduate degree, I was lucky enough to go to Sydney, Australia for three summer work placements at the Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. At ANSTO I worked in the institute for environmental research. I extracted and measured radioactive isotopes from water and soil samples, and worked with “core” samples from ice, sediment, soil, tree rings, and clam shells. By scanning these cores, you can look back in time and learn how the environment has changed over hundreds (or thousands) of years – a literal geological time capsule.

  Towards the end of my PhD I spent a few months working for the Naked Scientists Podcast: a weekly radio show and podcast all about science news, cutting edge research, and other interesting science topics. In my final week, I got to produce a show “A Robotic Reality” all about soft robots, robot-assisted surgery, and autonomous underwater vehicles like Boaty McBoatFace.

  When I was at university I spent six years rowing and competing in the Boat Races. After I finished the experiments in my PhD, I spent four years as a “full time athlete” – trying to make the GB rowing team – initially alongside writing my thesis, and later while working part-time in my current job.

• Current Job:

  I work as the community manager for the Science Scribbler citizen science projects that the Franklin run on the Zooniverse.

  My current job is split between research, science communication, outreach, and community building. What this really means is that my days are very varied! Some days I’ll be running events for schools, or helping out at science festivals. Others I’ll be doing data analysis, coding, or working with other researchers to design citizen science projects on the Zooniverse. And once a month I livestream citizen science on Twitch… so there’s a lot going on!

• Employer:

  The Rosalind Franklin Institute is a national research institute creating technology for life science discovery and human health.

  We bring together scientists and engineers from many different disciplines; integrating biology, chemistry, imaging physics, and applying artificial intelligence to understand and engineer life.

  You can find us on the Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire.