Profile

I live in York with my husband and 5 year old son who keeps me very busy. When I do have free time, I love to make children’s clothes and do other crafts such as crochet and cross-stitch. Spending time is nature is also really important to me so going for walks or camping is an activity we do as a family. People are always surprised to find out that I play a full contact sport on roller skates called Roller Derby.

I work as a Research Technician so I’m involved in doing various experiments as well as keeping the equipment working and helping others in the lab. The most recent project I was involved with was looking at what we could do with the rice straw that is left over in the fields after harvesting. In places like Vietnam and the Philippines this rice straw is burnt in the fields and it produces a lot of pollution that is very bad for people’s health. We were looking at trying to find out what this rice straw was made of and if we could then turn it into useful products such as biofuel, bioplastics and biochemicals. These products could then be used instead of those that are currently produced from fossil fuels. These products would then be produced in a biorefinery.

I’m up at 6 am to get my son to breakfast club before work. Once I’m at work I check my email and plan my day. Some days are spent in the lab working on experiments other days are spent in front of the computer looking at my results or catching up of paperwork or ordering supplies. My experiments involve using a number of robots that can do some of my work for me. This means we can get through lots of work as it works through the night (so I don’t have too). I like to eat lunch away from my desk so meet up with friends for a chat. Some afternoons I leave early so I can collect me son from school but other evening I have to stay late to finish off experiments. I like that I can be flexible with my time.