Antonia Hawker

"I think the personality types match me pretty well! The qualities of being an 'Explorer' and 'Quality Controller' are ones I would expect from being a scientist. In my role you need to be practical, good at problem solving and curious, if not how would you answer any big science questions?! I think the 'trainer' aspect comes from working with small children for several years!"

"I do a mix of hands on lab testing and site visits, as well as desk based research and report writing. My projects are all to do with protecting workers from injury from high levels of noise and vibration that can lead to health problems. This includes testing power tools, looking at new technology that has come on the market and also working with inspectors for solutions in the workplace where there have been problems. I enjoy the fact that it is so varied that you never get bored. "

"At school my favourite subjects were geography and physics; I chose to do physics at university and ended up going to UCL. I found university very hard and after graduating decided at that time I did not want to pursue a career in science. I was really interested in working with children with special needs, so I worked in a secondary school in South London as a learning support assistant before then moving on to work for a London local authority working as a special educational needs keyworker, which involved working with a massive range of children with different needs such as profound learning disabilities, autism, blind and deaf. The purpose of the job was to support the children to be able to access education as much as possible. I worked mainly with children under 5 and those who had just started primary school. A lot of the focus was about supporting children with the transition between nursery and primary. Whilst I absolutely loved this job and found it really rewarding I felt there was something missing. I still spent a lot of my free time reading science magazines or books about space. Following a trip to the science museum in Manchester I realised the thing that was missing in my life was what I had loved all along, physics. So I made the decision to apply to do a masters. I moved out of London and up to Manchester where I had got a place on a masters course to study Astrophysics at the Jodrell bank Centre for Astrophysics. I spent a year researching star explosions and supernovae and absolutely loved it. Once I had completed my course I got my current job working for the Health and Safety Executive in Buxton as a Noise and Vibration Scientist and have never looked back. "

"I live on the edge of the Peak District so most of my spare time is spent cycling or walking in the hills. Whilst at university I got the opportunity to spend several months each summer in the French Alps, which grew my love of the outdoors (and dramatically improved my French!). Whilst there I climbed Mont Blanc (second highest mountain in Europe), had a go at ice climbing, watched the Tour de France and cycled up Europe's highest paved mountain pass. The idea of these things initially was a bit scary but it just seemed so cool I had to have a go! I have cycled competitively for a number of years at a national level with results including being a regional champion. Before university I didn't have many hobbies as I focussed a lot on school work. I found university helped bring me out of my shell and open doors to loads of new things to try."

"I spend a lot of my time writing reports for lab work that I have done. Lab testing typically takes a couple of weeks at maximum but the reports can take months! Reports will contain all the information about the testing including an introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. I normally spend weeks looking at the data we collected to get my head around the number and look for any patterns or trends that can help with the findings. Boring things like emails are also a standard part of my day, but that means you can relax at your desk with a coffee and a biscuit!"

"I took A-Levels in Maths, Physics, Geography and Chemistry. I wasn't good at Chemistry so I dropped it after a year! After this I did Physics at university and then a masters in Astrophysics. When choosing my university course I made sure to closely look at what the module choices were to make sure I could study the kind of physics I was interested in the most."