Profile
Lucy Chandler
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About Me:
I live in the countryside near Reading with my parents. I work as an analytical chemist 👩🔬 but I spend most of my time with my horse or doing Musical Theatre. I love animals, hiking up mountains, and doughnuts!🍩🐕🦺⛰
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I work as an analytical chemist in the UK defence industry.
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Read more
My work as an analytical chemist means I use a variety of different instruments to look at materials and see what they’re made of. This is useful for checking that other scientists have made what they think they have in their experiments, and for finding out what unlabelled things are in the back of cupboards!
My company works in the UK nuclear defence field so my science work helps make sure our country is kept safe.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up and go for a run before having breakfast (currently loving granola and yoghurt!). I get to work for 8:45, check my results from yesterday’s experiments and start planning my work in the lab for the day. I go and prepare my samples before having lunch in the office with my friends and reading my book. In the afternoon, I go and set up the experiments in the lab. I go home at 5:15pm.
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Education:
I went to an all-girls school in Cambridge from the age of 11-13, before moving to France as my dad got a new job. Whilst in France I attended the British School of Paris, meaning I still got to do GCSEs and A-Levels, and be taught in English! Living in France meant I got the chance to adapt to a totally new situation and be confident speaking to totally new people! After school, I then moved to London to go to Imperial College and get my degree in Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry.
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Qualifications:
I did GCSEs in Maths, English (Language & Literature), Biology, Chemistry, Physics, French, Geography, Resistant Materials Technology, and Drama.
I then did A-Levels in Chemistry, Biology, Maths, English Literature, and did an Extended Project Qualification on why there are fewer girls in science. The three science subjects helped me build the strong technical knowledge in the field, whilst English and the Extended Project helped me look at things differently and be comfortable with my writing skills – something that’s come in useful when writing up reports on my experiments!
My degree was at Imperial College London, I did a combined masters (meaning that I did my first and second degree mixed into one) in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry and a Year in Industry (meaning I took a year out of University to work in science for a year before going back to finish my degree).
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Work History:
This is my first job after University, whilst studying I did a year working at this company in the job I am in now and loved it so much that I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else!
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Current Job:
Materials & Analytical Scientist in Gas, Organics & Elemental Analysis.
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Employer:
AWE – Nuclear Security Technologies
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
animal-loving analytical chemist
What did you want to be after you left school?
Forensic scientist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Nope, I was a little bit of a teacher's pet!
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I thought about applying to be a police detective so potentially doing that instead!
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Big Maisie Peters and Taylor Swift fan!
What's your favourite food?
I love all sweet things, but I'd have to go with cheesecake.
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