Clare Knock

"I am a Senior Lecturer in a university and my role is in teaching about and researching explosives and munitions (weapons) and blood stain analysis.I am curious and imaginative. I enjoy working with other people and am certainly a ‘Coach’ and ‘Communicator’ type in my teaching role. The ‘Explorer’ type fits well with examining the experimental data from my research to see what it means."

"As a Senior Lecturer, there are two parts to my role. I teach and supervise students who are working towards Masters degrees and PhDs (Doctorates), including setting and marking coursework and exams. I also take part in a lot of interesting experiments. I carry out research into blast waves from explosions, and blood stain analysis. I have spent days on explosive ranges blowing up explosives, looking at the shock waves produced and how you can alter them. "

"At university I studied for a degree (BSc) and then my masters (MSc). After completing my PhD (Doctorate) in Applied Mathematics, I worked in universities in Canada and Australia before getting a job as a post-doctoral researcher, a role which has a starting salary of about £32,000 (with a PhD). Over time I have worked my way up through the university ranks and transferred from being a researcher to a lecturer. You should always do what you enjoy – if that changes you can always change your job later!"

"In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, cycling, bellringing and writing poetry.I like to travel and she even used to be a glider pilot! I sometimes have the opportunity to travel with her work. I teach in the US for a week every 2 years, and have been to a lot of European countries to attend conferences."

"I prepare and give lectures on MSc courses, set and mark exams and coursework, supervise PhD and masters students carrying out projects in bloodstain analysis and blast waves, review papers for journals and do an awful lot of administration. "

"I did 10 O'levels (roughly equivalent to GCSE) and then did maths, further maths, physics and chemistry A'levels as I found those subjects easiest. My degree was a BSc in Theoretical physics but after a summer job working for the government at their Fisheries Labs in Lowestoft I took an MSc in Oceanography and then got an industry grant from the electricity board to do a PhD in Applied Mathematics studying the movement of water in the Severn Estuary. After a couple of jobs abroad, I went travelling around the world and returned to the UK where the only job I could get was computer modelling of explosives. I'm still here 23 years later. More recently I've completed a PGCert in Higher Education - the teaching qualification for university lecturers and an MBa. Since leaving school I've also got an A'level in English literature (which is very useful in teaching you how to frame an argument) and Spanish (great for travelling). "