Profile

Bio-medical material scientists look at lots of different and interesting things. Some look at new ways to deliver drugs, or at new materials to use in permanent implants- like hip replacements, or they simply try to answer some of natures toughest questions – like how do geckos stick to the wall. It is a really exciting area of science to work in!

In my project we are trying to make new types of ’tissue expander’. A tissue expander is used by surgeons to help grow extra skin before certain types of operation. The reason they need extra skin is either because they are removing some damaged skin (it may have been burnt, had cancer or been badly scarred), or because they need extra space to put something in (like a prosthetic ear). Hopefully the new type of expander will be much smaller, expand different amounts in different directions and cause less pain, which means that we can use it for new types of surgery that are more delicate, like fixing cleft palates (where there is a gap in the top of a babies mouth).

I did Materials Science for my undergraduate degree, which I totally loved- it is full of real-life science and engineering. I have friends from my course doing all sorts of jobs now- including Formula 1 engineers, working for the European Space Agency, Rolls Royce and lots more! Out of the lab I really like sport, I do a lot of running, swimming and skiing, and play tennis and badminton. I also love films, basically anything from Despicable Me to Man of Steel!

My days are quite varied, and involve a mixture of time at my desk, planning new experiments and looking over results, and time actually in the labs running experiments. Some experiments require all of your concentration and are very tiring, but other ones are more relaxed so we can listen to music at the same time. For some of the experiments we need to make new pieces of kit, we do this in our mechanical workshop, which I enjoy using a lot. The man who runs it is very nice, and also lets us fix our bikes in there as well!

Our department is next to a really big park, so we normally go for a walk around there (in the summer we take a ball or Frisbee) at lunchtime and then eat in our common room which overlooks the park. It’s a really nice location to work in.