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My name is Hannah.

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I studied the masters of chemistry at Warwick

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and I graduated in 2022.

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I currently work at a company called Infinium

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and my role is as a research chemist.

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My everyday base role is I will most

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of the time spend my time in the lab.

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So I will go into the lab, I will work on projects

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for customers, I'll do performance testing.

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We primarily work with fuel additive and lubricants.

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So I work in our marine team,

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so I'll be testing them in fuels

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and then I also might be doing some research into new

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formulations that we might want to offer our customers.

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But then I also have roles outside of the lab, so we need

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to look at risk assessments

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and consider safety our procedures.

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So it's very much a balance between lab and non-lab roles.

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I learned a couple things from Warwick

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that I think I really value in my career now.

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One of the biggest things from my chemistry degree was my

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master's research project that really allowed me

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to develop my research skills so much in the lab.

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It's working out what you're gonna do in the lab,

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how are you gonna carry your research forward,

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and just being able to work safely in the lab, work

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with other people and respect like the environment

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that's really key to working in industry.

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Warwick also gave me a lot of key skills, uh, for outside

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of the lab and one

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of the main things is presentation skills.

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And now when I'm now meeting with customers, I'm meeting

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with colleagues and I've got

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to try and communicate what I do.

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It is given me that extra confidence

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to know that I can do it.

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One thing I can say is that Warwick is one

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of the reasons I ended up in the job I did today

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because they regularly advertise vacancies in companies

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that they have close connections with.

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And I saw an advertisement on the chemistry teams page

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that said, well, this company called infinium,

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they're looking for, um,

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recent graduates for a chemist role.

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I applied and here I am.

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I think one of the things that really helped me to develop

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outside of my course was when I participated

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in the chemistry society.

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Um, this gave me the opportunity to visit primary schools

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and do little like science experiments with the kids.

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Actually now looking back, what I really was able

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to take from that was the ability

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to communicate scientific knowledge at different levels.

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And that's actually something that you need

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to get used to in industry.

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Not all your customers or your colleagues are gonna have the

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same scientific basis that you will,

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but you still need to be able to pitch

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what you are telling them at the right level.

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So that's actually something you can get really valuable

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while still enjoying yourself.

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So I still keep in contact with people from my course today.

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Uh, a lot of my friends are currently doing PhDs here at

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Warwick in the chemistry department,

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and I know they're really valuing their experience there.

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But equally, I have friends

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who study chemistry here who've gone on

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to completely different careers.

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They've got careers in finance, in IT, security.

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It's that you don't have to stick to chemistry.

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It's really what I've learned from my friends there.

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Warwick does a lot of different modules in the chemistry

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degree, which I feel are really useful when you're making

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the move into industry, not just the organic synthesis,

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which is really important if you're

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going into pharmaceuticals.

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But modules such as the polymer module

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and the energy module, they're really applicable

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to the industry at the moment, especially

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as I come from the fuel additive industry,

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you're really beginning to think about that move

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to a more sustainable future.

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So the energy module really interrogates that

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and it's something that I would

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really recommend to future students.

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The advice I'd give to a student

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who is considering studying chemistry at Warwick would be

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first, go for it.

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Warwick gives you a really good

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foundation in lab-based skills.

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It's a really important part,

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but equally what you're gonna learn here from your different

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modules, the knowledge, the communication skills,

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you'll get an opportunity

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to look at programming things like this.

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It's so valuable to you

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and I feel like you shouldn't limit yourself from that.

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So just go for it.