Profile

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Allyson McIntyre

    • About Me:

      I live in Macclesfield, however, I am originally from Scotland I love horses and have been riding since I was a little girl and own my own horse.

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      I have a passion for horses and riding, when I moved to England from Scotland, I also moved my horses with me. I am lucky to live in an area where I can have a great job and the ability to have my horse near by with lots of things to do outside of work. I do everything from hacking to competing my horse in dressage and jumping. If I am not at work or glued to my horse 🙂 you will likely find me in a gym or walking around the lovely peak district.

    • My pronouns are:

      She/her

    • My Work:

      I work in a chemistry department for a large biopharmaceutical company. I help enable scientists to understand what they have made and how to manage their data.

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      I work in an area called High Throughput Experimentation, this is where the scientists can use equipment and automation to allow them to do lots of experiments at the same time for example 24, 48 or 96 experiments simultaneously. I personally don’t run the experiments, however, I help to ensure the scientists can understand what they have made by utilising analytical science. I help to bring in instruments for the scientist to analyse their output from their experiment. Essentially we can separate components, identify them and determine how much has been made. This allows the scientist to understand if the experiment has been a success. With scientists completing many experiments at the same time, this can mean there is a lot of data, so part of my job is looking at software’s and data management solutions to ensure the data is stored and available for use and that we can automate some of the work to make it faster.

    • My Typical Day:

      I wake up, go to the gym and my horse and often get to work for 9:30 am. I spend some time testing new software for one of my projects.  I have lunch with friends and in the afternoon its usually have meetings with people in my department and other departments in Sweden, UK & USA to help progress some of the projects I work on.

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      I wake up and go straight to the gym for 6:30 am (I am an early riser :D). After the gym, I go to the stables and complete jobs there as well as ride my horse. I am very lucky to have flexible working so I then get ready and head to work for ~9:30 am. I work in a global team, which means I work with people in different places around the world to be able to do my job. I lead projects that will either used in a single site, for example UK or projects which will be used across multiple sites, for example, UK, Sweden & USA so I typically don’t spend much time in the lab. I spend my time in meetings talking with people about how the projects are running and what support they need to be able to progress the work. As some of my projects involve data, I have strong links with out IT department, therefore, I often have meeting with them about how to get new software into the work place. I work external to my company with other companies that supply the software and instruments we want to purchase. So I can sometimes find my time spent testing software and instruments to understand if they can do the job we require of them.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would use the money to help put on an open day to allow students to come to where I work and get a guided tour, be able to see what we do and ask scientist questions about their work.

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      Inverkip Primary School, Scotland

      Greenock High School, Scotland

      University of Strathclyde (with industrial placement)

      University of Strathclyde (post graduate studies)

    • Qualifications:

      Scottish Standard grades (similar to GCSE’s) in English, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, French, Spanish, Computer Science & Geography

      Scottish Highers (I think these are like and in between AS/A level) in English, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science & Geography

      MSc in Forensic and analytical Chemistry (2:1) from the University of Strathclyde – this was a 5 year Masters undergraduate degree. One of the years was spent in industry where I moved to England an worked for AstraZeneca as an analytical scientist.

      PhD in Pure and applied Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde – I worked in the area of process analytical chemistry, focussed on mid-infrared technology.

    • Work History:

      Dairyman – I was brought up on a farm so my first job was at one of my families farm in the local area milking cows on a Saturday.

      Tearoom assistant – A Sunday job where I prepared food, served customers and cleared tables at a local garden centre tearoom.

      Administrator – I worked in a car salesroom completing administrative tasks to help progress the sale of a car.

      Milk runner – With my family again 🙂 I used to deliver the milk to the local neighbourhood – 3am starts!

      Waitress – I worked in a hotel restaurant, waiting tables and running the bar.

      Sandwich placement – Analytical scientist – during my undergraduate I worked at AstraZeneca as an analytical scientist in their chemistry department.

      Analytical Scientist at AstraZeneca – This was my first real job after I finished my PhD
      Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca – process analytical technology
      Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca – applied technologies
      Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca – Applied Technologies

    • Current Job:

      Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca – Analytical & Data for High Throughput Experimentation

    • Employer:

      AstraZeneca – leading Biopharmaceutical company that manufacture new drugs to help patients with diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Analytical and Data Scientist

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        Analytical or Forensic Scientist

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        No - well maybe for talking occasionally

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I would possibly do software testing or teaching

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Celine Dion

        What's your favourite food?

        Pasta

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        To clone myself to get more work done, to work less to spend time on my hobbies and to make it quicker to travel back home to Scotland

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