Profile
Fran G
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About Me:
I am a chemical engineer – I use maths, chemistry and physics in my day to day work to design and improve chemical plants. At home, I live with my border collie and spent a lot of time out walking!
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My hobbies include skiing, running and going on hiking trips with my dog.
At school, I played a lot of music, including oboe and alto saxophone. Jazz band was my favourite.
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I am a chemical engineer. This means I spent a lot of time designing vessels and pumps which make the everyday materials we use today!
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With my work, I spend time travelling to chemical plants in different countries (including Turkey, The Netherlands and Germany) to make sure the plants are running correctly.
I also suggest improvements to the running of the plant by looking at the data sent to the UK office.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up at 6 am to walk my dog, have breakfast and drive to work.
I arrive around 8, where I check emails and work on sizing new equipment
After lunch, I will have meetings to discuss changes to our design.
I arrive home around 6pm to walk my dog again 🙂 -
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Mostly I spend my days in the office, working at my computer doing calculations or in meetings with the rest of the team.
Sometimes I need data from a laboratory, so work with the chemistry department to run some experiments. Often we have to be very creative to test the things we want to!
Other weeks I travel to a chemical plant to see how the equipment is really functioning. This part of the job is really fun and I get to talk to a lot of people about their jobs!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would spend the money by making an interactive display/model of what engineers do at my company to take into schools/colleges. Having a model to interact with makes the science and engineering come to life and makes it much more fun for students!
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Education:
I went to a secondary school near Sheffield until I was 18.
After this, I went to Newcastle University in the North East of England to study Chemical Engineering. I graduated after 4 years of studying with a master’s degree in engineering.
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Qualifications:
I recieved 11 GCSEs, including maths, english and triple science.
At A level I studied Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics.
To study my degree I had to have studied Maths and Chemistry at A level (or equivalent)At University I gained a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering
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Work History:
During my degree I worked for 1 year at a tablet factory making medicine for diabetic people
I worked at Tata steel for 2 years after university, reducing emissions from the process.
I then went travelling for 2 years, including France, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.
I have been back in the UK for 5 years and now work designing petrochemical plants.
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Current Job:
I work to design vessels and pumps for a chemical plant.
I get to see how they work in real life, and suggest improvements for how the product is made.
I spend a lot of time doing calculations on my computer, and looking at data coming in from the plants online. -
Employer:
Koch Technology Solutions
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Dog loving engineer
What did you want to be after you left school?
A chemical engineer
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Very rarely, I liked to spend my time playing music
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I would love to be a scuba diving instructor! I nearly chose aeronautical engineering instead to fly planes!
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Colbie Calliat
What's your favourite food?
Peanut butter and cucumber sandwiches
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Stay fit, healthy, and be able to travel for a very long time to come!
Tell us a joke.
Knock Knock Who’s there? Broken Pencil! Broken Pencil who? Never mind, it’s pointless.
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