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Anush Mataghchyan

    • About Me:

      I’m a Chemical Engineer from Armenia. I live in Leeds with my partner and 2 lovely guinea pigs – Bryson and Peanut. My free time is usually spent upside down, spinning on an aerial hoop or bouldering . 

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      I’ve been doing aerial hoop (like in a circus) for a couple years now and I absolutely love it. I go to training sessions most days of the week. My work is also right next to a bouldering gym so I try to go there most mornings and lunchbreaks.

      I love learning new things regardless of the topic. Currently, I am reading a collection of short stories about different types of gemstones and the influence they had. Before that I was obsessively reading about the sewage system of London. Cool stuff!!

    • My pronouns are:

      My pronouns are she/her

    • My Work:

      The company I work for helps capture carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas – so that it doesn’t escape into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

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      The company I work for helps capture carbon dioxide – a type of greenhouse gas – from companies that produce large amounts of it. If this gas wasn’t captured it would  be released into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming and we don’t want that.

      As part of my job I have designed different bits of equipment that work together to capture the carbon dioxide, I have done some calculations to check if these bits of equipment are working as they should and I have written reports to make sure everyone knows what has been done. I always worked as part of a team and its really nice that way, because if you make a mistake, someone will always spot it.

    • My Typical Day:

      I am lucky to be able to work both from home and from office (and occasionally going on site where our big plant is).

      Because I work at a start-up, my responsibilities tend to change much more often than if I was working in a large company. Some of the things that I’ve been up to over the past few days involve – wiring some temperature sensors (just like thermometers but with wires), calling pump selling companies to ask about some details about their pumps, use modelling software which shows how our carbon capture process works in an interactive way, drinking at least 50 cups of tea.

      My office is a few minutes walk away from a climbing gym so I go there most lunchtimes to exercise/stretch. I definitely prefer that to sitting and slowly eating lunch. This helps me come back totally refreshed and ready to work again.

       

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      My partner works at a school with underprivileged kids that have been excluded from every other school due to issues with their behaviour. Alot of these kids have ADHD and Autism and will struggle securing jobs as adults. I would love to organise activities that give a glimpse into trades and how they link to sciences. I am thinking of a visit of a plumber where the kids can learn to assemble pieces of pipework in various arrangements and then linking that to how fast the water the will flow in each case. Spoiler alert, this is all linked to physics and fluid dynamics. Fascinating stuff.

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      I was born in Armenia so went to school there until turning 16. In UK I studied ESOL which is a qualification for students that come from abroad, then did my GCSEs and A-levels in Huddersfield New College before going to uni in Edinburgh University. I was 20 when I started University, so 2 years later than the rest of my coursemates.

    • Qualifications:

      In UK I got 6 GCSEs (Maths, English language, English literature and 3 sciences). I then got 4 A levels and 5 As in Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

      In uni I got a masters of Chemical Engineering.

    • Work History:

      I have been working in my current place of work since graduating but before that I had lots of different jobs, mainly waitressing and working in call centres.

    • Employer:

      C-Capture

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Enthusiastic, curious, forgetful

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I didn't know what I wanted to be. All I knew was that I was good at sciences and maths (but not Physics)

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Not really, I was pretty well behaved if you don't count being very talkative and interrupting the teacher when bored.

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

        I've been daydreaming about going into trades, like plumbing or gas engineering or painting/decorating.

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Very difficult question, it depends on the day.

        What's your favourite food?

        I love sushi and dumplings

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

        Have a better memory, work 4 days a week max, be more flexible (I want to be able to do splits and backbends)

        Tell us a joke.

        Never trust atoms; they make up everything.

Questions answered by Anush

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