Profile
Diane Turner
-
About Me:
I live with my family near Cambridge. I am an analytical chemist during the week and spend a lot of my weekends at swimming galas as a judge, while my children compete.
-
Read more
I love walking with my family and dog, horse riding and scuba diving.
-
My pronouns are:
she/her
-
My Work:
I work in laboratories around the world where I help people to analyse things, from air to explosives to toys to food to meteorites!
-
Read more
Everything needs analysing for many different reasons! For example, food and water to make sure that it is safe to eat or drink, flowers to find out what chemical compounds the fragrances are, bodily fluids to help find out why someone is ill or why they have died, meteorites to look for signs of extra-terrestrial life. I help people in laboratories by teaching them how to perform the analysis as well as developing and fixing the analytical methods.
-
My Typical Day:
I never have a typical day – sometimes I might be working from the office above my garage, other times I might be flying to a customer in a different country, or driving or catching the train to a customer in this country.
-
Read more
If I’m working in the UK, I wake up early and then drive or catch the train to a customer’s site where I work with them all day in their laboratory, having lunch with them. I then either stay in a hotel, if I’m working there again the following day, or travel home again.
If I’m working from my office, I get up, sometimes take my daughter to swimming training before school, then walk my dog and head into the office to catch-up on emails, give advice to customers via email and Teams calls and catch-up with my colleagues. In the evening I take my children to swimming again!
-
What I'd do with the prize money:
I have been given some analytical instrumentation that I am fixing so that I can take them into schools and other public outreach events for students and people to try analysing samples themselves! They are chromatography instrumentation. One arrived without a power source which costs hundreds of pounds, so I would spend it on that and other consumables so that I can get them out there as soon as possible!
-
Education:
I went to school on the Isles of Scilly, which only had 110 pupils in the whole secondary school!
At the age of 16 I had to leave home and go to Cornwall to do my A’Levels, I lived with my Gran in St Ives, Cornwall. In the middle of my A’Levels I went to Spain as an au pair for 2 months, when I didn’t speak much English!
Going to University was much easier, as I had already left home.
-
Qualifications:
I studied 9 GCSEs at secondary school, then did a further 2 GCSEs at College along with 3 A’Levels in Chemistry, Maths and Spanish.
I did a BSc(Hons) degree in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Warwick.
I then did a MSc in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Warwick.
I did my PhD part-time in Analytical Chemistry in disease diagnosis (bladder cancer, prostate cancer, hepatic disorders and sepsis) at The Open University after I had started my own company.
-
Work History:
At school I worked in a ships chandlery cutting chain, sales, banking and bookkeeping – i.e. running the business!
I worked my way through University in the Student’s Union, which was great for getting free entry to events – first in one of the cafes, then in the reception and box office as well as a Chief Steward and First aider.
My MSc included a 6 month project which I did in industry working for Syngenta. While there, I was offered 2 different jobs, to stay there or set-up my own lab within a small company that sold analytical instrumentation, which of course I accepted and worked there for nearly 5.5 years.
I then started my own consultancy company in analytical chemistry just after my 29th birthday.
-
Current Job:
I have owned my own consultancy and training company in analytical chemistry for 19 years now! I employ 5 other people and also have 6 consultants who work for my company as contractors.
My main job is still working with my customers in analytical chemistry laboratories around the world, but I also have to run my business.
I enjoy pretty much everything that I do, but am always very busy!
-
Employer:
My company is Anthias Consulting Limited. We are a micro-business, meaning we have less than 10 employees.
We very much focus on improving knowledge and don’t sell any instrumentation or consumables. We also use our experience to develop new analysis methods for our customers as well as fixing methods that don’t work properly.
Our training courses are approved by the Royal Society of Chemistry for Continuing Professional Development, which is difficult to get, but we are very proud of the quality of our training so it is important.
-
My Interview
-
What did you want to be after you left school?
Be an astronaut
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Very occasionally
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Marine biologist making marine protected areas around the world (I did this in my spare time as a volunteer before having children)
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Coldplay
What's your favourite food?
Any vegetarian dish containing aubergines
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To have more time to do more outreach with The Open University's meteorite collection, to go scuba diving again in The Philippines, to have my own horse
-