• Question: do you work in a lab?

    Asked by anon-355335 on 16 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Thomas Swift

      Thomas Swift answered on 16 Mar 2023:

      I used to work in a lab 5 days a week, now I am only in it one or two days a week.

      I really enjoy making new materials, carrying out analytical tests or studying complex chemical reactions.

    • Photo: Arno Kraft

      Arno Kraft answered on 17 Mar 2023:

      Not anymore. I used to work in the lab 10 years following my PhD, which is probably much longer than most. Nowadays, as a lecturer, it is mostly a desk job except when I am in class. The only time I am in a lab is during lab classes, which last 3-4 hours where I keep a watchful eye what students do and try to correct their mistakes and give them tips.

    • Photo: Maryam Sani

      Maryam Sani answered on 17 Mar 2023: last edited 17 Mar 2023 8:15 am

      I used to work in a lab, and I really enjoyed it. I was doing lots of different analyses on malt. I also did quite a bit of lab work during my master’s in Analytical Chemistry.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 17 Mar 2023:

      Yes and no… My research group does experimental work and spends a lot of time in the laboratory. But modern science is so tied up with data and it’s analysis that we all spend a lot of time in our offices at our desks running computer programmes. I should add that we don’t wear white lab coats in the lab… only safety specs!

    • Photo: Graeme Dykes

      Graeme Dykes answered on 17 Mar 2023:

      Most of my work is practical so yes there is a lot of lab time. I do have other tasks which are done at my desk in the office.

    • Photo: Rebecca Walker

      Rebecca Walker answered on 17 Mar 2023:

      Yes! Different kinds of labs – we have a large organic synthesis lab where I work alongside my PhD students to carry out reactions to make new molecules, then we can move to an analysis lab where we can check to make sure the things we’ve made are what we wanted, and then our thermal characterisation lab where we can view our new liquid crystal molecules on a microscope and study their behaviour at different temperatures.

    • Photo: Craig Johnston

      Craig Johnston answered on 18 Mar 2023:

      My research group do the actual work in the lab. I normally go in to the lab to give advice or check for safety issues.

    • Photo: Jade Markham

      Jade Markham answered on 31 Mar 2023:

      I have just left a job in the lab to work on business development – I go to the customers and talk to them about what chemistry they need and then I work with the lab to make these chemicals

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