Profile

I work for Northern Ireland Water as an analytical chemist. I have been here for 7 years and still really enjoy my work. I analyse drinking water samples from all over Northern Ireland. Mostly I use an instrument known as an Inductively coupled Plasma- Mass Spectrometer or ICP-MS to find out the level of a range of metals within the samples. This is down to parts per billion levels which is very small. I test for metals such as Aluminium, lead, Arsenic, Mercury, Nickle, Manganese, Iron, Cadmium etc which have been linked to causing health problems in large amounts. I also am allowed to go out to local schools and colleges and tell the pupils about my work as a scientist. This is almost the best bit because it lets me show them that science is exciting and fun not just book work. Dont tell my boss cause he thinks working in the lab is more fun !

Each day I come in and usually start the ICP-MS and allow it to settle for 20 minutes. Its a bit like me and needs a while to get ready for work. ( I need a coffee first ! ). I then calibrate the instrument which means putting samples of a known concentration of each metal through the instrument so that it has something to measure the unknown samples against. I get the samples out of the oven where they have been “cooking” all night. This is to make sure that I get every last bit of metal out of the solution. I then build a worksheet of the samples to be analysed. I should be good at working in TESCOs as this involves a scanner. The samples are then put onto the instrument, I programe it and its analyses the samples and prints me out lots of results. I have to be able to look at these results and tell if they are above the health limits for each metal.

Before I go home I have to get all the samples that have been arriving throughout the day and add acid to each one. They then go into the oven for the next day.

Other things that happen during the day could be meetings which are usually a bit boring as I am the Deputy Quality Mananger. I am also a health and Safety officer so I have to check that the labs and offices are safe to work in.

I sometimes get to go to conferences and workshops to see whats new in the world of water science. That can be really hard work !

I go out to local schools to explain what I do as a water scientists. I have a powerpoint presentation which shows what happens within our labs but no-one just like looking at pictures. So I bring along a few experiments so that the pupils can get their hands on some science. This kit consits of a filter unit so that we can try to clean up some dirty water and we make our own filters using plastic bottles. I would like to spend the money on buying a few more pieces of kit such as a hand held pH meter so that my presentation might encourage a few more budding scientists.