Profile
Marie-Angelique Deschamps
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About Me:
I am French, I live with my partner in Macclesfield. During the week, I am a process chemist, and on weekends, I love going for walks in the forest and meeting with my friends in Manchester !
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My pronouns are:
She/Her
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My Work:
My work is about transferring chemical reactions from the laboratory to the pilot plant.
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Read more
When other companies ask us to make a product, we need to make sure the reactions are safe and do not cost too much. So first, we run the reactions in the laboratory to make a little bit of the product so we are familiar with the reaction and the analysis. Then we try to use different chemicals to perform the reaction (we call those chemicals reagents) and see what reagent gives the best result. Once we are happy with the reaction, we run a bigger reaction to make sure our modifications actually work. We might need to try to purify the product using different techniques (this will depend is the product is a solid or a liquid). This is called “development”. Once this phase is finished, if the customer needs large quantities of the product, we start the production phase: we just repeat the reaction on very large scale, in very big reactors !
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My Typical Day:
I wake up at 6, I do a bit of exercise and have my breakfast (2 slices of brioche or potato cake, half a glass of orange juice and a coffee). I get to work at 9:30, I read my emails, talk to my manager about some experiments or results, then get to the lab and start some experiments. Then I have lunch, sometimes at my desk, sometimes in the canteen with my colleagues. In the afternoon, I look at the results of my experiments, plan some work for the day after. I go home at 6pm.
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Education:
I went to school in France. I attended several schools as my family and I have moved house a few times.
After my masters degree, I moved to the UK and went to the University of Sheffield.
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Qualifications:
After my GCSE (the equivalent in France is called “brevet des colleges”), I passed a scientific A level (in France, we don’t pick our A levels, we just pick in what section we want to study: literature, social and economics, scientific). Then I went to University where I started my chemistry degree after a failed first year of Medical school. After three years, I obtained my Bachelors degree in Chemistry, followed by a Masters degree in Chemistry and Life sciences, and a PhD in Organic Chemistry.
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Work History:
I started working when I was 18. I was only working during the summer, as I was studying during term time. My first two summer jobs were in a factory, where I was packing ham before it was delivered to supermarkets. When I started university, I worked during weekends and summer holidays in a supermarket, at the till. I stayed at this place for 3 years. At the end of my education, I started working in a company called Apex Molecular. I was making small molecules mainly for research and development in the medical sector. Then I moved to another place that used to be called Vivimed Labs (now called James Robinson Speciality Ingredients). I was making photochromic molecules (molecules that can change colour with light), for application in the ophthalmic industry (to make sunglasses).
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Current Job:
A year ago, I moved to Carbogen Amcis, where my job is about process development and scale up !
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
I wanted to be a doctor
Were you ever in trouble at school?
No.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Lady Gaga
What's your favourite food?
Home made steak and ale pie !
Tell us a joke.
"Un, deux, trois" cat and "One, two, three" cat are doing a swimming race. Who wins ? Answer: "One, two, three" cat, because "Un, deux, trois" cat sank ! Haha !
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