Profile
Hugh Birkmyre
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About Me:
I’m a Scottish chemist now living in England with my wife and baby daughter. I work for a company that makes high-end plastic for aircraft, cars, medical implants and so on. I like baking cakes, reading (fantasy, history and crime are my favourites) and making my own beer.
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I come from Glasgow and went to university there to study chemistry 🧪 because it was my best subject at school. I was unemployed when I got the chance to work for a company based in Lancashire and moved south.
Today I live in Blackpool with my wife, our baby daughter and two cats 🐱. I like to bake, bringing cake 🍰 into the office for my colleagues, and write 🖊, having self-published some books on Amazon. I also have a weakness for science fiction, history and true crime stories.
I also make my own beer and wine, but I don’t bring this into the office.
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My Work:
I take things invented in a lab and find ways to scale them up to make on a chemical factory.
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If you imagine cooking, then making one or two plates of food is easy. But, if you had to cook for a hundred people in a huge pot (like in a canteen), that’s a lot more difficult.
Basically, that’s my job, but with plastic.
In a laboratory, it’s quite easy to do chemical reactions, but on a chemical factory it’s really hard, so my job is to take an experiment from a lab and find a way so a factory can make a thousand times as much of the new chemical without anything going wrong.
I work in a building which is a shrunk-down factory, so we can make things and know if they’ll work on the big factory.
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My Typical Day:
Mostly I do normal office hours, either in an actual office or on the plant. Sometimes, if things are busy, I have to work shifts either in the evening or overnight.
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I come in and make sure everything is OK, then carry out the tasks we need to do that day, which might be:
- weighing out the materials for a new batch of plastic
- moving bags of chemicals to where they need to be stored
- pouring any chemicals weighed out into the ‘pot’ to make plastic
- washing the new plastic to clean it
- drying any wet plastic in our oven
- running our recovery system to recycle dirty solvent
Of course, there’s lots of paperwork to do; health and safety, meetings, training and looking at results of tests run of stuff we’ve made.
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Education:
West Coats Primary, Glasgow: 1991 – 1998
Hamilton College, Hamilton: 1998 – 2004
University of Strathclyde: 2004 – 2009 -
Qualifications:
Highers: English, maths, chemistry, biology, history, modern studies
Advanced Highers: Human biology
Degree: Msci Forensic and Analytical Chemistry -
Work History:
Petrol Filling Station Cashier/Shift Supervisor, Glasgow: May 2004 – May 2007
Year in Industry Chemist, Braintree, Essex: 2007 – Jun 2008
Laboratory Analyst, Glasgow: Apr 2010 – Jul 2010
Sales Rep/Team Leader, Glasgow: Nov 2011 – Jan 2012
Christmas Sales Assistant, Glasgow: Oct 2012 – Dec 2012
Lab Technician, Blackpool: Jan 2013 – Apr 2019 -
Employer:
Victrex is an innovative world leader in high performance polymer solutions, focused on the strategic markets of automotive, aerospace, energy & industrial, electronics and medical.
Every day, millions of people rely on sustainable products and applications which contain our polymers and materials – from smart phones, aeroplanes and cars to oil and gas operations and medical devices.
With around 40 years’ experience, we develop world leading solutions in PEEK and PAEK based polymers, semi-finished and finished parts which shape future performance for our customers and our markets, bring environmental and societal benefits and drive value for our shareholders.
Our purpose is to bring transformational and sustainable solutions that address the world’s material challenges, every day.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Scottish plastics maker.
What did you want to be after you left school?
Doctor.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
A little, but not seriously.
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Policeman.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Oasis.
What's your favourite food?
Curry.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Better hair, quieter baby, more books.
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