Profile
Katie Emery
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About Me:
I am currently living with my boyfriend in Sheffield. At the weekends, I keep fit by doing lots of walking in the Peak District or swimming. I love reading, travelling and drawing/painting, and to relax me and my partner play board games and computer games together and with friends.
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I am currently living with my boyfriend in Sheffield, we moved in together for the first time at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, having met in Switzerland 8 years ago when we were in our undergraduate degrees at different universities.
At the weekends, I keep fit by doing lots of walking in the Peak District or swimming. I grew up in the Peak District and spent my childhood walking and cycling in the countryside.
I love reading and drawing/painting. Most recently I have been upcycling furniture in my house, however I prefer to paint art pictures to decorate my home. My favourite artists are Van Gogh, Salvador Dali and Leonid Afremov.
I have an awesome collection of boardgames and I regularly meet with friends to play boardgames in board game cafes. My favourite game is currently Cubitos, which is a dice rolling game to move around a racetrack. Most evening after work I like to relax and play computer games on my PC. I play a lot of games with friends or co-op with my partner. Most recently, I have bought the Valve Index virtual reality headset to play, which is amazingly fun!
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I am a senior research chemist and most of my work is done in a lab. I spend all my time thinking about chemical molecules: about how to make them, or how to change them to make them better. The chemical molecules I work with are small structures made by linking together different atoms using bonds.
I will select a molecule that I would like to make and I use my knowledge and some resources on the internet to plan the best way to make it. Usually there are many different ways to make the same molecule, so I can choose my preferred path. Each molecule is made starting from a commercially available starting molecule, and then I add to or change parts of that starting piece to get the exact material I wanted.
I can use many different methods or techniques to make this by myself, but sometimes I need to use techniques that I am not trained at, and so I am able to talk and work with many colleagues to achieve the final molecule. Working in the chemistry department involves a lot of teamwork and there is a wonderful feeling of friendship and community.
When the molecule is made, I give it to the biologists who make a solution of the solid and spray it on the plants in the greenhouse. We wait for a couple of weeks and then we look at the plants and see how the molecule that we applied has affected the plants. We are most interested in preventing the growth of weed species. The reason for this is because, when plants are growing in a field, there is a limited amount of nutrients, sunlight, food and water for the plants. If a farmer has planted their crop, then they want their crop to get all the resources so that they can get the maximum food from that field of crop, so they don’t want weeds stealing those resources and using them instead.
I can then use the results from these plant studies to think of new “designs” of that molecule, for example, I could change one part of the molecule and then see how that change effects the plants.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up and have porridge and coffee for breakfast. I drive to work about 8:30 am and do experiments in the lab. There are about 4 of us in each lab, and whilst we work we all chat and have some music on the radio. I have lunch or go to the onsite gym with friends at midday, and then in the afternoon I either go back to the lab and continue my experiments or I work in the office looking at biological data. At 4:30 pm I head home for dinner and to play computer games or go swimming.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would contact the Royal Society of Chemistry and donate the money for their outreach funding work that support chemistry based activities for the public and in schools.
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Education:
Highfields school in Matlock for GCSE, and Sixth Form
University of York for 4 years for my Masters in Chemistry
University of Strathclyde for 3.5 years for my PhD in chemistry (organic and computational)
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Qualifications:
GCSE’s = 7 A* ; 3 A; 1 B
AS Levels = B in English Literature and B in Mathematics
A Levels = A in Spanish, A in Biology and A in Chemistry
First Class Honours with a distinction MChem (Masters in Chemistry) with a Year in Industry in Switzerland from the University of York
PhD in Organic and Computational Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde
Currently working towards my Chartered Chemist award (CChem)
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Work History:
I started working when I was 16, as a waitress at a local restaurant in my home village and doing a weekend paper round. Until I went to university when I was 18-19, I waitressed or worked as a bartender in several pubs and restaurants in Matlock.
During my university degree I worked as a intern in the drug discovery department in F.Hoffmann La Roche in Basel, Switzerland.
I spent a couple hours each day during university helping at a local school in York, teaching science.
I did my PhD in both organic chemistry (doing lab work) and as a computational chemist.
I started at my current role as a senior research chemist in crop protection about 5 years ago. In that time, I have spent this last year on a secondment/placement at the manufacturing site for the company as a process chemist, and I will return in two months to my old role near London.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
artistic gaming chemist
What did you want to be after you left school?
Marine biologist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not at school, but I was at home.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
What's your favourite food?
Fajitas
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Wish 1: That I was a better cook. Wish 2: That I could own a golden retriever. Wish 3: To take a year off and travel the world, especially New Zealand, Japan and some National Parks in America
Tell us a joke.
Question 1: Whats pink and fluffy ? Answer 1: Pink Fluff. Question 2: Whats blue and fluffy? ... Answer 2 : Pink Fluff holding its breath.
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