Working to increase visibility, recognition, career progression and sustainability of technical careers in HE and having positive impacts on people, culture and environment.

I am delighted to take up the position of Deputy Head of Infrastructure in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University. This is an exciting position that dovetails the management of Technical Services with Technical projects with the aspiration of establishing an effective and efficient partnership between Technical services and academics to deliver outstanding research outputs.

In this role I have 3 main areas of responsibilitya) Management of Technical Staffb) Management of space and the estate which is occupied by the Institute of Neurosciencec) Safety Officer for the Institute of Neuroscience

To provide leadership and strategy for the NTDC.

The NTDC team is expanding and going from strength to strength. I am currently supporting this expansion in the role of Deputy Director.

Training and coaching business inspiring others to reach their goals

To advocate and champion the Higher Education & Technicians Education & Development (HEaTED) programme across HE and FE in the Northeast region.

In August 2005 I took over the role of Technical Co-ordinator and subsequently took leave from my PhD studies. In this role I assumed school wide responsibilities in a number of essential areas including budget management, all aspects of technical personnel management, estates, health and safety. I am also an active member of the School management committees (Executive, Research Committee and Management Board) and Chair the School Safety Committee.During this time I successfully steered the School through several Health and Safety inspections, ensuring all safety documents and risk assessments were accurate and up to date. I have also been able to motivate several staff members to take on a variety of health and safety responsibilities. I have taken a lead in completing both the School’s Local Incident Plan and space survey. Additionally, I was involved in co-ordinating the final stages of the MEDSPAN refurbishment projects.

In this capacity I had two major rolesa) Run my own research projects to investigate the effect of stress hormones on the 5HT1A autoreceptorb) Provide technical management across a large section of the School

In this capacity the bulk of my work was in the determination of monoamines in brain, blood and plasma using High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Electrochemical Detection (HPLC-ECD). HPLC then became my specialty.I also trained and supervised technical staff in a wide range of laboratory techniques.

This was my first research post and I spent a fair proportion of time performing enzyme assays using a spectrophotometer to characterize kidney membrane preparations.

In this role I trained in both laboratory and workshop (mechanical and electrical) techniques to support both research and teaching activities within the department.