Catherine Gardner Email & Phone Number

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Fowlmere, England, United Kingdom

Xaar

Cambridge, United Kingdom

I was part of the Actuator Technology group at Xaar undertaking development work to contribute towards a thin film silicon MEMS based printhead.

Cambridge

This diverse role encompassed research and development as well as product improvement and process engineering as CIT transitioned into manufacturing. Working as part of a small team in a fast-paced environment necessitated a resourceful, pragmatic attitude and contributing to projects in a versatile way in line with changing requirements. I had opportunities to develop my project management skills and learned a great deal from being immersed in a manufacturing environment.I employed my existing R&D skills (such as AFM) as well as learning new methods such as FT-IR microscopy and LabView programming. I also gained practical experience of Statistical Process Control and Change Management.Working on collaborative ‘New Projects’ aimed at combining novel technologies to the best advantage of both parties allowed me to use and develop my project management skills to ensure that targets and milestones were agreed and achieved.I developed metrology systems and methods for outgoing quality control of CIT's products. Chief amongst these was a reflection spectroscopy system which analysed film thickness on a reverse gravure coating line at 25 m/ min. I contributed to the analysis and troubleshooting of CIT’s products and manufacturing processes as well as reporting back to customers. One aspect of this was to oversee the matching of instrument and measurement performance between CIT and customer sites in the USA to ensure QC and specification data could be compared. I was part of the team that worked on a technology transfer between CIT and Unipixel Inc. This involved updating and collating relevant documentary resources, training visiting Unipixel staff, planning for the start-up of equipment and systems in the US and aspects of contingency planning.

Pfizer Institute For Pharmaceutical Materials Science, University Of Cambridge

This work was funded as part of the Pfizer Institute for Pharmaceutical Materials Sciences and was carried out in the Materials Chemistry Group of Prof. Bill JonesDuring this project I was responsible for the establishment of a specialist Atomic Force Microscopy laboratory, the purchase of a custom designed instrument system and regular reporting of progress to Pfizer to develop project strategy. The objective of this project was to study mainly crystalline pharmaceutical materials by AFM at different temperatures and relative humidities with the aim of distinguishing the formation of amorphous material. Complementary analytical techniques used included Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Thermogravimetric Analysis, Powder X-ray Diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscopy.I contributed to the supervision and advising of PhD. and project students and took the opportunity to present my work at several national and international meetings as well as at regular Pfizer update seminars.

Department Of Physics, University Of Southampton

This project involved micro-fabrication of devices via direct-write photolithography in order to test the performance of conductive molecules self-assembled at the junctions of metallic nanowires.A probe station was used to allow current/ voltage measurements to be carried out. Using tunneling current calculations, it was possible to estimate the width of the gap in the metallic nanowires and thus characterise the effect of the self-assembly of conducting molecules into the gap.

Warwick Electrochemistry And Interfaces Group, University Of Warwick

This work was funded by Unilever and centred on investigating the interaction between limescale crystals and bacterial biofilms in relation to household care applications.During this project, limescale was grown in the presence of cultured E. Coli bacteria biofilms and the resulting samples analysed by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy. A further aspect of this work was looking at the efficacy of surface treatment with different chemicals on calcium carbonate crystal formation on surfaces. This was studied using Optical Microscopy in conjunction with a liquid jet cell and Quartz Crystal Microbalance measurements.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Electrochemistry And Interfaces: Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy And Atomic Force Microscopy

Activities and Societies: Acting as a demonstrator/ supervisor during a lab day for the chemistry contingent of the National Academy.

Master’S Degree, Chemistry, Mchem. Chemistry First Class (Hons.).

Activities and Societies: Writing Features and Opinion articles for the university newspaper the ‘Warwick Boar’ as well as submitting.