Anna Class of 2021

"I am a PhD student researching NMR techniques for exploring both carbon capture & storage and hydrogen storage for renewable energy stores. I also help to supervise undergraduate students in several lecture courses in the Chemical Engineering department. I am still based in Cambridge".

Tell us about a typical week

As a PhD student my working week is very flexible. I typically spend most week days either at my desk in the office reading research papers or in the labs running experiments. Any office work I want to complete I can do either at my desk or in one of the many libraries. A couple of afternoons a week I provide supervisions for undergraduate students, and then later in the evening I attend sports training. My research group meets at 3pm on a Thursday, so this is pretty much my only fixed event week-to-week!

Tell us about Chemical Engineering at Cambridge

I studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, so Chemistry, Maths and Computer Science were all extremely useful when I started my degree. I decided to apply for Chemical Engineering because I thoroughly enjoyed studying Chemistry in Sixth Form and liked the idea of problem solving of the engineering aspect. Chemical Engineering at university can be very theoretical but I also found it exciting because we were using the theory to extend into practical solutions and considering both ideal and real cases in a range of subjects. I have also ended up studying elements in physics, biology and programming so all the sciences can come in handy!

Chemical Engineering includes a whole range of scientific disciplines and finds applications in almost every sector. Energy technology to biomedical devices, reactor engineering to food manufacturing, they all require chemical engineering input.

Tell us about your Sixth Form at TGS 

Studied the IB: HL Maths Analysis & Approaches, HL Chemistry, HL Latin, SL Computer Science, SL History, SL Literature & Performance, EE in Mathematics

I also participated in the school orchestra, model united nations and mentoring in Latin and primary school maths & science through CAS in the IB.

I was taught Chemistry by Mr McDaid and Ms Bisby in Sixth form. All of my teachers across all subjects and years were influential in my learning however!

Tell us what TGS gave you

TGS gave me a lot of confidence to try things out and take more of a leadership position. The internal assessment section of Chemistry started the development of my independent research skills which I now use daily! However, I definitely think that studying the wide range of subjects in Sixth form that I did helped me keep multiple perspective on tasks and content. As well as the sciences, I studied History, English literature & performance and Latin; these gave me good foundations in essay and project writing and helped me develop my problem solving and presenting skills. When at university, the confidence this gave me encouraged me to join three sports teams and run the student committee at my college as JCR President.

Tell us about your proudest achievement so far

It is hard to pick one proudest achievement, but getting onto the PhD was a very big moment for me! Me and my lab partner also won the 4th year research project prize so maybe that too.