Profile
Em J
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About Me:
I’m 25, grew up in Yorkshire and now live near Bath! I am a development scientist and enjoy going on walks and exploring new places. I wanted to be a vet when I was younger but then realised I’m too squeamish.
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Since university, I’ve stopped the hobbies I did growing up so I’d love to pick up some new ones. I’m currently thinking about learning how to paint, make clothes, netball, hula hooping. It would be fun to have an Etsy shop one day.
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
Catalyst layer scientist for hydrogen fuel cells.
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I improve the materials/ amount of materials in the catalyst layer to improve hydrogen fuel cells and help them become successful! Hopefully this will help us transition away from petrol/ diesel cars and make our world less polluted!
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My Typical Day:
I wake up around 7 (often a struggle) and have breakfast and set off around 8 for work. I get to work around 8:30, where I catch up with emails/ messages and remind myself what meetings I have for the day and look ahead to what I need to prepare for upcoming meetings. This can be anything from analysing data to share the results with different teams, or plan some experiments.
I don’t really have a set day to day – it depends on the different projects we have going on and what meetings pop up! I like having lots of variety as it keeps it interesting.
I finish work around 4:30 (4pm on Fridays!) and it takes me around half an hour to drive home.
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Education:
I went to Ridgewood, a state school in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
I went to a sixth form attached to the school as it was where my friends were going and a lot of the teachers I like from secondary school taught there too.
I then studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath. I almost chose to study Chemistry but decided against it in the end as I didn’t know anything about scientist roles out there, other than hospital based roles I saw on TV.
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Qualifications:
I got mostly A*s at GCSE (helps, but isn’t often a requirement)
A*AB at A Level in Maths, Chemistry and Physics
Masters in Chemical Engineering(MEng): 2:1 at University of Bath.
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Work History:
My university course included a placement year where I worked as an Engineering Project Management placement student at Walkers Snacks Food in Coventry. This involved seeing Doritos being made from the corn coming in to the triangle shapes being made, seasoning and packaging (and free crisps!). I managed lots of different equipment installation projects. This was a huge shock to the system for me as it was the first time I’d worked with other ‘adults’ and needed to learn lots of skills quickly. However, lots of people were extremely helpful and kind to me and I learnt a lot. I realised I wanted to have a more science-y role and at the research stage, rather than supply chain (where things are mass produced and shipped to customers).
After graduating, I moved to Liverpool to work for Unilever with laundry products (Persil, Surf etc). Although I liked the environment, the role wasn’t for me so I moved to Wiltshire to work for Johnson Matthey, and I really like what I do now!
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Current Job:
I work as part of a fun development team (around 13 of us) where we work to improve the different components of a hydrogen fuel cell (catalysts layers, membrane).
This involves analysing data and working out how to tweak the composition of the layer to improve the performance (make it easier for reactions to happen) and durability (help it to last longer).
We can have targets from customers to work towards or we can follow scientific curiosity and try to foresee what will be required in the future.
I sometimes go into the lab, but there are often people whose role it is to carry out lab based activities, so I often request this to help make decisions.
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Employer:
Johnson Matthey
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
I had no idea! I knew I liked science but didn't know exactly what scientists do.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Nope
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Something in the medical field.
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