Profile

After doing both my undergraduate (Chemical Physics MSci) and doctoral (Nanosicence/Colloid Science PhD) degrees at Bristol University, I moved to Reading to start my career. I met my wife when we were both in (and subsequently running) a student choir in Bristol. I’ve always been involved with music, having started in brass bands and with singing taking over once I got to uni. I have conducted several student and adult choirs, and have also won several national championships with a choir in Bristol which led to representing the country at international singing competitions in the USA. Since 2017 I have been qualified as a judge with the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers, which involves judging national and international singing competitions and providing coaching on singing technique and musicality. I have found a love of cooking over lockdown, especially once I figured out it’s very much like science, only you can lick the spoon! I enjoy reading sci-fi and fantasy novels, leaning towards authors like David Gemmel and David (+Leigh) Eddings.

My official title was “Principal Formulation Scale-Up Scientist”, which means that my work is focused on taking new recipes and ideas from the other research scientists and making sure that everything works before we hand over the idea to the product development team who are designing things for customers.

On a rare day without meetings, I will spend time either learning new skills or preparing presentations. As with any job, I also have regular meetings with colleagues from across the business in various functions, such as product development, purchasing, commercial sales, production, outreach, and even charitable functions. If I have sufficiently many meetings in a day I can work from home, which is great to be able to do.

I usually have lunch with a group of my colleagues in our on-site canteen.