Lucy Morgan

"I believe the personality types I matched with are a good match. As a more senior member of my team and a project lead, I do a fair amount of management and coaching. We are a multi-disciplinary team, so we regularly teach each aspects of our areas of expertise to one another. As a person more familiar with the processes we are changing, I am at times more knowledgeable about the “pain points” and in a better position to influence the direct of work to tackling these."

"My company has a big drive to digitise our way of working. This involves using technological solutions to help improve efficiency, easy the burden of documentation, and give us easier access to our data in a structured way. My job is to develop these digital processes and aid those in the lab in using them. This is a big change to how our scientists work, so there is a strong focus on not just developing tools, but making sure they are the right tools and the transition to using them is not too disruptive. My team develop the tools, however, we work alongside the scientists (our “product owners”) to make sure the tools are what they require, flow in an intuitive way, and help improve the way they work. Another part of my role is as a computational chemist. I build models based on chemical information about materials to try and predict properties of similar materials. I enjoy working as part of my team, managing projects and seeing what creative solutions we can develop. Every day I am learning something new, which is a great way to continually engage with my work."

"I have always been interested in science and learning. I am more drawn to learning and the technical skills than specific areas of research. I started my journey in forensic science, which gave me a broad area to explore and learn. I learnt about law, chemistry, disaster management, investigative techniques, facial recognition software, witness interview techniques, and forensic investigations. I undertook projects in analysis of sweat, forging of fingerprints, and chemically identifying tobacco brands/batches using portable techniques. Originally, I wanted to do a PhD in forensics, but as I submitted my application, another PhD in experimental and computational analysis of catalysts caught my eye. I applied, was offered an interview, and while researching the topic more, was pulled in to the excitement of the topic. I was offered the PhD and was given freedom to explore, learn, and develop new skills for another 3 years, both in the lab and computationally.While presenting my work at a conference, a professor who focused on battery and solar cell research approached me and we had an engaging conversation about both our work and the techniques we used. He asked me to apply for his post doctorate position and shortly after was offered the position which utilised the skills I had developed and applying them to battery materials. At this point, I had developed my chemistry knowledge, coding skills, and computational modelling skills.At the end of my contract, I applied to many jobs and academic positions. I grew up locally to Pfizer, knew many past employees, all of whom were very happy and enjoyed working there. I found a position advertised online which aligned nicely with my skills, despite being in a completely different area of chemistry. This position has since given me the opportunity to develop new skills and applying my broader knowledge. My varied background was invaluable to getting into my current role and work effectively in my multi-disciplinary team."

"Since university I have been quite a keen jive/swing dancer. The upbeat music and lovely community has been fantastic to be a part of. I also enjoy playing games with friends, whether it be board games or role play games. I have an ongoing weekly game online with a group of friends, another board game group, and the occasional games day with old university friends. It is a fun way to keep in contact with friends, allowing us to talk and catch up, while giving us an activity to bond over. I also enjoy the challenge of escape rooms. The rooms are usually so well themed that even if the puzzles aren’t easy for everyone, working together you can complete them and bring a bit of silliness to the day."

"Our team operates in a framework called Agile, which is a focus and task driven framework. There are 3 distinct types of tasks we perform: “Backlog grooming” which is spending time with our clients to build a list of requirements they need for the tools we are building, “Spiking” which is learning and developing proof of concepts, and “Sprinting” which is a focused period of time for completing tasks. My day usually starts with checking emails and performing any admin tasks, which removes some small distractions from the day. Then I have blocks of time allocated for the different tasks I perform. This could include meetings with clients, brainstorming ideas, learning new skills, focusing on a single task, and creating demonstrations/documentation to communicate tools to clients. Finally, I regularly reflect personally and with my team on what worked well and how we might improve our work process in future."

"AS/A-Levels - Applied Science, Mathematics, computingFoundation Degree in Systems EngineeringMSci (Hons) in Forensic SciencePh.D. in Chemistry"