Inspiring Women in Science: International Day of Women and Girls in Science

At Radleys we’re celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science by showcasing some of our team who started out in science and are now using their scientific knowledge across many departments of our business.
Technical, scientific expertise is one of our many strengths here at Radleys.

1. Dr Jenna Spencer-Briggs

What made you get into science?
I got into science because I really enjoyed it at school. Basically, I enjoyed my science lessons. I enjoyed problem solving. I’ve got quite an analytical brain, and liked getting a problem and trying to work out the solution. And essentially, that’s what science is. And I enjoyed it throughout school, did it at a level, and then went on to university and studied chemistry at undergraduate level, and then stayed on to do a PhD in chemistry as well

What do you do now?
I’m now the Marketing Manager here at Radleys, and in this role, I am using my science background to market our products effectively and efficiently to the people that are using them, because I know what the pain points of our target customers, the chemists, and so can speak their language

Why did you change direction?
After my PhD, I worked as a lecturer at Cardiff University. I really enjoyed talking about science and communicating science to the students and really sort of helping their knowledge and imparting my wisdom onto them, but I realised that working in academia wasn’t for me. I couldn’t see that long term, but when I wanted to switch careers, I knew that I still wanted to do something related to chemistry, related to science, and science communication was really important to me. So I actually started at Radleys as a scientific content writer, so using my science knowledge to communicate science to other chemists, and I’ve just worked my way up through the marketing ladder from there and now marketing manager.

2. Lara Pocock

What made you get into science?
I’m really passionate about science because it’s an opportunity to help other people. Science can transform the world as we know it, and the possibilities are endless.

What do you do now?
I’m still quite connected to the science community in my role. I’m still aware of research and development that’s going on within the business, and then translating that and also the opportunities that our products might bring to the scientific community.

3. Dr Samantha Lau

What made you get into science?
I was quite lucky enough to attend a high school that was a science and technology secondary school, which meant that they really pushed the STEM subjects. And I think quite naturally, I had a proclivity towards those subjects, and they really helped that I had really engaging teachers that really spurred my interest into pretty much, it sounds cliché, but understanding the fundamentals of how the universe operates on a really small level. So chemistry is pretty much what I ended up following my passion towards. And just like being surrounded by all the different elements in the world and how it’s been used. And so that’s really the boring route into why I ended up following the path of going into science and specifically chemistry, a little bit further into my life.

What do you do now?
Currently an apprentice scientific glass blower in the production team of Radleys. Brilliant. It’s funny that I have to say Radleys, because it’s not clear that we work for Radleys.

Why did you change direction?
I got to a point in my research career where I was looking for a different challenge, and I was lucky enough that every institution I worked in actually had a scientific glass blower, and it’s something I was always interested in seeing how it was done. It’s very much a dying or an endangered craft, and it’s something that I’m very keen on ensuring it doesn’t become extinct. So I want to be part of the new generation of scientific glass blowers.

4. Dr Katherine Wickham

What made you get into science?
I mainly just really loved it. So when it came to sort of choosing what I was going to study for university, I was torn between maths and chemistry. So my background is in chemistry, and I loved that there were practical aspects to it, and that you could go into a chemistry lesson at school, and you could do a range of things. So sometimes you’re mixing bits together, sometimes you’re doing math, sometimes you’re doing lots of different things. So that’s what I loved about science, and why I chose to pursue it further into study

What do you do now?
I work in the support team at Radleys, so I help our customers, our distributors, and sometimes our internal staff to answer technical questions about our glassware and our products. Obviously, this sort of draws on my science background, because sometimes those questions will be science-related. So if people are asking me specifics about how experiments might interact with our stuff, then that touches on that, but mainly it’s about our Radleys products.

5. Diana Bukuru

What made you get into science?
So science was about understanding how things work in the real world. So ever since I was young, I have always made my own skincare products and skin serums on my own. So that obviously translated into the lab. I’ve got else I’ve always liked learning by doing, problem solving and pushing myself to be more technical and challenged, and being a woman in an environment that isn’t always female-dominated is what pushes me to pursue a career in science.

What do you do now?
So I am currently a lab technician within our R and D department at Radleys. I currently test all of our existing products, as well as the new developing products that we have coming up in our ranges, and I just make sure that all of our products are tested to a good quality standard before being put out in the market.

6. Jasmine Tsui

What made you get into science?
It’s a good question. Thinking back, it started with my A-level study of biology back in high school. I was so fascinated by the concept of biodiversity, where life can exist in so many forms. And even more, it was actually that nuclear axis; that were these apparently simple building blocks of life. However, they are so adaptable that they can evolve and change over time. And they are even as small as a virus; the genome is so simple, yet also complex at the same time. So I’m really fascinated by that, and I was driven to study biology at university, and after that, I pursued a master’s degree in biology

What do you do now?
I’m very glad that I started my full-time role in Radleys as a technical specialist. On a daily basis, we are responsible for pre-sale inquiries as well as post-sales enquiries, support, like troubleshooting, when things go wrong, and also some custom items that, for example, we have already over a standard range of products, but we are happy to customise according to the applications for the customers.

7. Gemma Scott

What made you get into science?
So as a child, I was fortunate enough to travel quite a bit, and when I was around 16, I ended up going to Zimbabwe and Botswana, and I absolutely loved it. It really inspired in me a focus on all things environment and nature. And looking back, that was absolutely a turning point. So from that point onwards, it was then science led a levels, science led degree, and then ultimately a career in science.

What do you do now?
So I’m currently Director of Sales here at Radleys, and my job entails running teams that ultimately help chemists work more productively and safely by using our equipment and helping us as a business continually develop those products that those customers need.

Why did you change direction?
I’m not sure I ever really changed direction. I think I’ve always worked in the scientific sector in some way, and I think it was that, it was the exposure to science at a young age that I guess has led me to still be working in the scientific sector 30 years later.

8. Dr Keren Abecassis

What made you get into science?
I would say there was a kind of natural ability in those subjects in school, and more specifically, I had a very inspiring teacher when I was maybe 14, 15, and that’s what got me into chemistry, specifically. And as I got more into chemistry, I really enjoyed the really hands-on side of synthetic chemistry.

What do you do now?
So with a background in chemistry, I’ve got a PhD and some experience in the lab, I am now actually on the commercial side of science. I’m a product manager at Radleys. This is a rule that sits between sales, marketing and product development. I’m someone who speaks to our customers and our distributors regularly and try to understand needs and trends in the market and hopefully translate that into new products or improvements.

Why did you change direction?
When I was in the lab, I really enjoyed it, but I felt I wasn’t using my people skills as much as I wanted to, and I started looking into how I could combine the two. So for me, it’s very important that I work for Radleys, because I work with customers who are in the lab and I can relate to, but I just don’t do the science anymore. I just talked to them about what they do and translated it to the kind of more commercial side of things