Dashboard – I'm a Scientist 2024

About Me:

I work as a research engineer in metal 3D printing 👩‍🔬 but I also have a special printer for chocolate 🍫 When I’m not at work, my partner and I love travelling and exploring 🌎
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I love to cook (my favourite is dessert or anything sweet). I make a tasty banoffee pie. My partner and I love travelling. I was born in Japan and lived there till I was 6.

I like sports and like to try out new sports – my favourite so far are boxing 🥊 and rowing 🚣

When I want to relax I love reading and spending time with my family.
My pronouns are:

she/her
My Work:

I work as a research engineer in metal 3D printing 👩‍🔬 and I also have a special printer for chocolate 🍫
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I love my job because I get to try so many different things! I’ve travelled to different countries, and met so many interesting people. I’ve also tested the strength of chocolate bars, broken apart a toastie maker to see how it works and floated in zero gravity to test a special 3D-printer for space 👩‍🚀 I also teach at a University one day a week and talk to everyone I can to get them excited about science, engineering and the excited work we can do!
My Typical Day:

I work from both home and the office depending on the day and every day is different. Sometimes, I am running experiments, checking results and other times I’ll be talking to my customers or writing reports for my projects.
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There’s no such thing as an ordinary day for me. I am a researcher but I also spend one day a week at a university, teaching. In a day I usually have a mix of meetings, visits with customers and sometimes I give talks on my work. I also spend time planning experiments, looking at results and making reports as well as working on our 3D printers. I love it because I work on so many different types of projects from things for aeroplanes, rockets, the environment, and racing cars! When I’m at university, I plan my teaching, spend some time planning social media posts and activities we can do at our open days or activity days.
What I'd do with the prize money:

At the moment I have an activity where we show chocolate 3D printing which is done the same way metal is 3D printed. I’d like to expand into other ways of making chocolate like casting (pouring liquid material). We can do some strength testing but I’d also like to buy a portable microscope which will help show the broken surfaces of the chocolate which teaches us a lot about how they behave.

Candidate CV questions (extra)

Education:

I was born in Japan, and I moved to the UK when I was 5. I went to school in Bedford between 7 and 18. I really liked science and languages in school and couldn’t decide which I wanted to do when I was older. After GCSEs,

I still couldn’t decide whether I wanted to do A-Levels in languages or Sciences so I did a mix. For me, it was a great decision because it kept my day more varied and interesting.

I was really lucky because the school DT teacher was my Head of Year and she spent a lot of time helping me with my choices, and suggested I look at Materials Science. Between her, and one of my Chemistry teachers I had a lot of inspiration to be a woman in Science.
Qualifications:

I have GCSEs in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English, Geography, French, and Spanish

For AS level I did Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Spanish, with Maths, Physics and Spanish for A2.

I have a degree in Materials Science and Technology and then I also did a PhD in Metallurgy & Materials which I finished in 2020.
Work History:

I didn’t have a job until I went to university. Through my degree, I worked as a student ambassador, helping out at open days and contacting potential new students. Then when I was doing my PhD, I also was a teaching assistant helping run the university labs for students.

I was really lucky after my PhD I got a job with Siemens Energy working on 3D printing. I got to work with a great team and we did work on aeroplane parts, racing cars, and testing different materials.

Then after 2 years, I decided I wanted a job doing more research and I moved to my current job.
Employer:

Manufacturing Technology Centre (a research centre that works to improve and advance manufacturing in the UK)

My Interview
- How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
  
  chocolate-loving materials engineer
  
  What did you want to be after you left school?
  
  I really wasn't sure
  
  Were you ever in trouble at school?
  
  No not really - I enjoyed most of my subjects at school and had some great teachers.
  
  If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
  
  Probably an architect or a civil engineer
  
  Who is your favourite singer or band?
  
  Ed Sheeran
  
  What's your favourite food?
  
  Japanese food
  
  If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
  
  I wish there were more hours in the day, that I loved cleaning, and the weather was sunnier so I could spend more time outside.
  
  Tell us a joke.
  
  What's an astronaut's favourite key on a computer keyboard? The space bar.