What is a typical day like for you?
I recently moved roles into the central Health and Safety team as Laboratory H&S Advisor.
My days are extremely varied. We make up a new H&S advisory team so lately we’ve been completing some site visits to introduce ourselves and get to know King’s technical spaces better. This takes us all over King’s campuses!
Otherwise, I've been getting involved with everything from managing the H&S e-learning courses on Workrite, to the rollout of Cority to advising on policy guidance.
The only thing ‘fixed’ in my diary are the fortnightly gardening sessions I hold at the Denmark Hill Community Garden. Every Thursday over lunch (12-1) I do some gardening, people can drop in and join as they can – you don't need to have any gardening experience as we give instructions on what needs doing and provide light training over the hour.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
There’s lots of exciting things happening in the Denmark Hill Community Garden. We’ve recently worked with the King’s volunteering team to put the Community Gardens (both at Denmark Hill and Guys campus) on the volunteering platform. This means anytime spent volunteering at the Community Gardens is covered by King's Service Time so everyone employed at King's can spend up to 3 days (pro-rated) per year volunteering during time you'd otherwise spend working.
We also have the Community Garden Events competition running until next Summer. We’ve had some great events in the Denmark Hill Community Garden and are keen to encourage people to get involved and bring people who haven’t had the opportunity to check out the space. We’re offering a budget of £150 - £200 for 4 successful proposed events to be held at King's Community Gardens (either Guys or Denmark Hill campus). There’s more information here.
What do you do with your time outside academia/work?
Outside of work I try to commit to creative hobbies, something completely different than what I do for work. This summer I attended a course of pottery classes and really enjoyed it. I also have lots of (unfinished) sewing projects on the go.
Who inspires you most and why?
There are lots of people who inspire me, mainly people I know personally who I have had the ability to know or work closely with. I think anyone who tries to do something differently, understanding they might fail in the process, but tries anyways is inspiring.
What is your favourite part of your role?
I love meeting all sorts of people, passionate about different scientific: topics, procedures, methodologies, whatever.
Responding to the different issues that arise from working in a University as big as King’s, in some of the historic buildings we have, is challenging. But I think what unites a lot of the technical community at King’s is they love the field they work in.
I find this passion personally very inspiring.
QUICK-FIRE:
Favourite scientist: Maggie Aderin-Pocock
Netflix recommendation: Motherland, it used to be on Netflix but is now on BBC iPlayer.
The quality you value most in others: Perseverance, warmth, humour
The last photo on your phone: