Profile

Photo:

Fran G

    • About Me:

      I am a chemical engineer – I use maths, chemistry and physics in my day to day work to design and improve chemical plants. At home, I live with my border collie and spent a lot of time out walking!

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      My hobbies include skiing, running and going on hiking trips with my dog.

      At school, I played a lot of music, including oboe and alto saxophone. Jazz band was my favourite.

    • My pronouns are:

      she/her

    • My Work:

      I am a chemical engineer. This means I spent a lot of time designing vessels and pumps which make the everyday materials we use today!

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      With my work, I spend time travelling to chemical plants in different countries (including Turkey, The Netherlands and Germany) to make sure the plants are running correctly.

       

      I also suggest improvements to the running of the plant by looking at the data sent to the UK office.

    • My Typical Day:

      I wake up at 6 am to walk my dog, have breakfast and drive to work.
      I arrive around 8, where I check emails and work on sizing new equipment
      After lunch, I will have meetings to discuss changes to our design.
      I arrive home around 6pm to walk my dog again 🙂

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      Mostly I spend my days in the office, working at my computer doing calculations or in meetings with the rest of the team.

      Sometimes I need data from a laboratory, so work with the chemistry department to run some experiments. Often we have to be very creative to test the things we want to!

      Other weeks I travel to a chemical plant to see how the equipment is really functioning. This part of the job is really fun and I get to talk to a lot of people about their jobs!

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would spend the money by making an interactive display/model of what engineers do at my company to take into schools/colleges. Having a model to interact with makes the science and engineering come to life and makes it much more fun for students!

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      I went to a secondary school near Sheffield until I was 18.

      After this, I went to Newcastle University in the North East of England to study Chemical Engineering. I graduated after 4 years of studying with a master’s degree in engineering.

    • Qualifications:

      I recieved 11 GCSEs, including maths, english and triple science.

      At A level I studied Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics.
      To study my degree I had to have studied Maths and Chemistry at A level (or equivalent)

      At University I gained a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering

    • Work History:

      During my degree I worked for 1 year at a tablet factory making medicine for diabetic people

      I worked at Tata steel for 2 years after university, reducing emissions from the process.

      I then went travelling for 2 years, including France, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.

      I have been back in the UK for 5 years and now work designing petrochemical plants.

    • Current Job:

      I work to design vessels and pumps for a chemical plant.
      I get to see how they work in real life, and suggest improvements for how the product is made.
      I spend a lot of time doing calculations on my computer, and looking at data coming in from the plants online.

    • Employer:

      Koch Technology Solutions

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Dog loving engineer

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        A chemical engineer

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Very rarely, I liked to spend my time playing music

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

        I would love to be a scuba diving instructor! I nearly chose aeronautical engineering instead to fly planes!

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Colbie Calliat

        What's your favourite food?

        Peanut butter and cucumber sandwiches

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

        Stay fit, healthy, and be able to travel for a very long time to come!

        Tell us a joke.

        Knock Knock Who’s there? Broken Pencil! Broken Pencil who? Never mind, it’s pointless.