We spoke to Sarah Bennett in our School of Life Sciences (SLS) about her promotion to Principal Technical Specialist, advice to others thinking of applying in future rounds and her career journey.

What does your role entail on a day-to-day basis?

My role is very varied and there is no typical day. Recently, I've been working on a new facility management software, which will be rolled out across a number of the different technology platforms within the university. This has been a significant part of my role for the last year, from conception of the idea, building support, pre-market evaluation, and putting together and working through the tender. The whole process involved significant stakeholder engagement, across a broad range of roles within the university. We are now at the final hurdle, implementation and uploading the data and processes. It’s great to see it all coming together, working with other research technical professionals, and having an overview of all the amazing technologies we have at Warwick.

An important part of my role is to ensure that our facilities meet research demand, horizon scanning for new technologies and promoting the science we can enable. I work closely with my team, engaging in discussions about a new technology or skill they have encountered and whether it is something we should implement. I'm very lucky in the sense that I was part of the facility since its inception, overseeing its development from the ground up. This experience has provided me with comprehensive knowledge of the technologies we use and their capabilities.

My technical specialism is in liquid handling robotics, and in the lab I support researchers to transfer their benchtop protocols to the robot, developing workflows and protocols, and coding the robot.

I work nationally with other technicians, as part of a BBSRC People and Talent Strategic Advisory Panel for Research Technical Professionals, my involvement with the EPSRC funded TSN-ROKSLink opens in a new window project and work with MI TALENTLink opens in a new window. This means lots of meetings and actions to follow up on!

How did you get into becoming a technical specialist? What was your journey to this point?

Inspired by David Attenborough’s Blue Planet and influenced by a friend studying marine biology, I applied my Chemistry undergraduate degree to a PhD program at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. My PhD investigated the chemistry of deep-sea hydrothermal plumes and it was a fantastic period in my life of adventure and discovery. My research involved going out to sea, using robotics and submersibles to collect samples and analysing them back in the lab. It exposed me to lots of the technical roles supporting science that I thought looked really interesting. In the lab, there was a mass spectrometry specialist and I remember thinking how interesting it was that he was exposed to all these different research projects within his technical role. At sea, technicians manipulated the remotely operated vehicles, the robots that collected samples from the seafloor, whilst scientists directed which samples they wanted from behind. My passion for adventure led me to a postdoc in the United States and included a stint at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Here I got to see robots being built in clean rooms and live rocket launches, whilst being surrounded by amazing (and slightly intimidating) scientists.

The technical skills and knowledge I had developed during my research career, led me to a role at the British Geological Survey to work as a Stable Isotope Specialist. I was still classified as a researcher, rather than technician, but in hindsight it was this role that moved me onto the technical career path. I was employed to provide specialist support to academics in the use of stable isotopes to support their research. I enjoyed the work and the range of projects I was involved in.

In 2015, I came across a career changing opportunity – to manage the development a new UKRI funded £3.2M technology facility to support Synthetic Biology at the University of Warwick. Even though I didn’t have a biology background, my career to date had exposed me to a broad range of technologies and I had experience working in a multi-user facility. I still didn’t define myself as a technician, that realisation only came in 2017 at the Higher Education Technician Summit, 4 years into my technical career. I'm thankful that a change in culture, enabled by the Technician Commitment, has enabled this to be a career to be proud of.

As you say, you've run the facility from the very beginning, what's changed the most from when you started?

Once the facility was established, I was the only technical support for a broad range of instrumentation; microscopy, flow cytometry, robotics, chromatography, molecular interactions, whereas now I have a team of 5 technicians. This means we can provide more application specific support and enable research not just through technology but compliment this with relevant technical skills, optimising research and data integrity.

Changing the culture was rather serendipitous, coinciding with a change in my hours to part-time and the employment of a second technician to support the facility. The new technician applied his technical skills to provide more specialist support in the area of chromatography and this was heralded by the researchers and led to the employment of a second technician to provide application support to complementary technologies. Last year, we brought all the technologies and technology support specialists with life sciences under one umbrella, creating the Bio-Analytical Shared Resource Laboratories.

What were you most proud of from your application?

Putting it all down on paper made me realise and be proud of how much I have achieved over the last eight years. Just highlighting one metric here, the facility has supported over 400 users from eighty groups. For the first five years, I was the sole person running the facility and providing that support. I was still nervous during the application procedure that I may not meet the criteria, but when I was told that I had been successful, this was a significant confidence boost.

The Technical Research section made me appreciate the uniqueness of the high-throughput liquid handling robotic facility and my specialist technical skills. This was further bolstered earlier this year, when I gave a presentation at a Tecan Innovation Day to an industry-based audience. Industry representatives were particularly interested in how the HE sector are training the next generation of scientists in technical skills applicable to their companies. The positive feedback I received from this presentation was a real highlight for me.

What would your advice be to anyone else considering going through this application in future rounds?

Take opportunities! I have very rarely said no to any opportunity offered to me, which has allowed me to work and collaborate with the broader University community. Networking is crucial. Many of the initiatives I have implemented at Warwick have been inspired by networking with technical specialists at other Universities and adopting best practice. I encourage my team to network and those that do are building up their reputation and profile in the national community, learning more techniques and skills to apply at Warwick, and positioning themselves for promotion.