We spoke to Tom Moore in Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) about his promotion to Facilities Officer, his journey to this point and his favourite instrument!

What was your journey to becoming a technical specialist?
I started when I was 16 as an apprentice, doing a modern engineering technician apprenticeship with WMG. During which I went on to 3-month placements in various different areas and it was during one of these that I got to know Geoff West. At that time Geoff had the only two technical specialists within WMG and I was really interested in what they were doing – working with electron microscopes. I then got the opportunity to work with Geoff on one of the infrastructure projects and through that became involved in the microscopy group. During this time I managed to get the opportunity to undertake my degree and from there slowly transitioned from a generalist core role within the facility to become a specialist in this area.

What drew you to that to that was it the sort of technologies that you were playing with or the kind of samples or the research side of things?
There was one specific activity that really drew me to the microscopy suite. During my second year of my apprenticeship, we were undertaking a research project on nano composites and one of the researchers couldn’t undertake some of the activities in the workshop due to personal health and safety reasons. So, I was doing more of the hands-on processes, and we were doing the thinking together. We went over to the microscopy suite, having never heard of an electron microscope before, and I was fascinated by how small the features that we were seeing were. That did captivate me and so the interest in microscopy was there from early on in my career and it slowly grew. Having Geoff be so supportive and a champion for technicians was important. He would always encourage me to go that bit further and improve my skill set – this was important in my early career.

What's your favourite instrument that you've got at the moment that you use and why?
Oh, I've got to say, the good old JEOL 7800F. It’s the first large system I took ownership of so it’s got a special place in my heart but it’s also the workhorse and very well utilised. It’s also the system we get to train new people on, which is one of my favourite parts of my job. I like being able to impart knowledge and share my expertise with others that are just coming into the area. It's lovely to see the people are always so nice and enthusiastic about the opportunity to use these high-end microscopes for their own research.

In terms of the application that you made, what is the thing that you're most proud of from the application?

I enjoyed putting the application together as it gave me that space and opportunity to step back and reflect on what I have been doing which is something I don’t do that often. I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge in my application.

One of the examples I was particularly proud of was being involved in purchasing new equipment and being involved in the tender evaluation process. It was something that may have been a small piece of work but it’ll have a big impact on the department going forward – both from a running cost standpoint, but also with enhanced capabilities.

We also support a lot of the work experience students spending a few hours with us giving them an introduction to the microscope. We do this on a regular basis and when I stepped back and reflected on this I realised it’s now 20-30 young people I’ve worked with and who have hopefully taken something away from the time with us.