David Shepherd Email & Phone Number

Kibworth Beauchamp, England, Gb

Kibworth Beauchamp, England, Gb

Leicester, England, United Kingdom

Involved in helping Researchers in the faculty of Health and Life Sciences develop their research ideas into proposals. This covers areas as wide as Pharmacy through to Criminology. Also work with Nurses and Psychologists in developing applications.

I am involved in preparing and submitting the financial reports for the many projects the University has been awarded (400+ research grants.I liaise with the departments to obtain the information required to prepare the reports. I then analyse the claims to ensure they are eligible within European Financial Regulations. I then work with the departments to finalise the Financial Reports before submitting them.I also work with the PIs to ensure they submit their reports.Part of my job is to also respond to co-ordinators and Project Officers who have queries with the periodic reports and resolve them in a timely manner.

I was employed on Professor Ruth Cameron's ERC project.Worked on collagen scaffolds and specifically how cells could be made visible using Micro CT. Successfully achieved this!Also designed a novel collagen scaffold design to allow growth factors to be contained within an inner collagen scaffold. This was developed further by supervising a part III project who worked on this to bring it from theory to real life.Continued to collaborate with British Antarctic Survey studying the differences between native sea urchins and Antarctic ones.

Worked on the EC collaborative project Innovabone.Was involved in biologically testing the products that made up the novel scaffold design including the scaffolds and biogel that made up the novel device.Testing involved using osteoblasts to measure the osteoblastic to the materials individually and together. Due to problems also designed a way to measure the calcium produced by the cells as conventional assays did not work.Also measure the immunological response to the biomaterials using primary monocytes and looked for key markers produced by them.

Carried out Immuno-Assays on monocytes cultured on various polymeric materials. This was to investigate the immunological response for materials to be used in an orthopaedic implant that will be produced and tested as part of a large EU Project.The procedure included isolating monocytes from Apheresis Cones and then culturing them for 7 days. At certain time points media was removed and stored for use at the end of the study. This media was then subjected to assays to measure the levels of TNF-Alpha and LDH.

Wrote and ran the project to carry out research to determine if zinc substituted hydroxyapatite could be plasma sprayed for use on orthopaedic implants. Project involved producing substantial quantities of material to be plasma sprayed. The spraying parameters were then optimised and spraying on stainless steel discs (316L) carried out. The coatings on the discs were then subjected to in vitro tests involving osteoblasts (bone forming cells) and osteoclasts (bone resorbing cells). Quarterly reports were written for the funding body.

Post Doctoral Research Associate involved in the characterisation of collagen fibres on a TSB funded project. Working in collaboration with TiGenix on tendon repair and regeneration. The work has involved the use of Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Raman Spectroscopy to investigate the denaturation of these fibres. AFM has been used alongside SEM (including environmental) and optical microscopy to image the fibres and investigate the effects of straining and hydrating the fibres

Worked in the Customer Services Team dealing with customers problems and enquiries. Involved in arranging the delivery of back order items and also dealing with general problems arising. The main customers were University students with special educational needs.

Worked as a Team Leader on the LLU repair desk (Local Loop Unbundling) dealing with customer faults. The customers were other Other Licensed Telecom Operators who had end users with faults with their broadband and telephony. Job involved fault investigating and processing of jobs to engineers in the exchange or out in the field. When faults were in the process of being repaired I had to co-operate between BT engineers and our customers using their testing equipment to fix faults.As a team leader I had to be ready to deal with other team members problems and be able to solve problems as and when they came. Had to teach new members of the team and pass on the knowledge I had.

Worked on Broadband repair. Worked with other broadband operators progressing and dealing with faults on customers broadband lines

Built a billing system for a new pilot project involving selling hardware to small telecom operators. Also involved in the preparation of monthly reports that were sent to Senior Management including Directors, reporting the success of the project and also areas for improvement.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Materials Science - Production And Characterisation Of Zinc Substituted Hydroxyapatite

Activities and Societies: CUSU Graduate Democracy and Development officerThe PhD included developing a novel synthesis technique.

Mphys, Physics, 2.1

Activities and Societies: Guild Councillor representing the Faculty of Science, Department of Physics Student Staff Committee Member.

Education record