Profile
Justin Perry
My CV
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Education:
I grew up in Hampshire and went to secondary school in Southampton (the school isn’t there any more). I liked science, especially physics and chemistry, but not really biology at school, which is odd since a lot of my research involves biology these days, and I keep having to pick up a A level textbook and learn basic information!). I did A levels in maths, physics and chemistry, and went to Cambridge University to do Natural Sciences. I thought I’d be keener on physics at university but it turned out I liked chemistry more, and was better at it. After doing that degree, I went to Trinity College Dublin to do a PhD in chemistry.
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Qualifications:
I got 13 O levels (what GCSEs used to be called) and 5 A levels (physics, chemistry and three flavours of maths).
I have a BSc in Natural Sciences/chemistry and a PhD in chemistry.
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Work History:
Whilst I was a student I had a summer job in a hospital as laboratory scientist working out the levels of compounds in every body fluid there is. Interesting but sometimes rather smelly…
Later on as a student I had a weekend job in a dairy testing the freshness and quality of the raw milk and the final product in cartons and bottles. Not so interesting but much less smelly!
After I completed my PhD, I was a laboratory research working for 4 years. I have been a university lecturer since 2000 and a Professor since 2016.
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Employer:
I work in the department of Applied Sciences at Northumbria University which is based right in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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About Me:
I live and work in the North East of England. I am a Professor of Chemistry at Northumbria University. I am lucky enough to be able to research almost any aspect of chemistry I am interested in.
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I have a few hobbies which I do tend to get all technical about. I bought a sack of white flour and worked out the very best, tastiest recipe for vegan white bread using a far too rigorous set of experiments. I like being outdoors whether it’s growing food and vegetables to eat or walking. I have just started trying to photograph all 59 varieties of UK butterfly, and after 3 months I am have seen 20 or so (some of them are difficult to tell apart!) and I am turned over some of my garden to a wildflower meadow to see how that increases the diversity of wildlife there.
I like looking at art and visiting galleries and museums around the UK. In the last year I have seen wondrous things in Stoke, Norwich and Aberdeen.
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My pronouns are:
he/him
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My Work:
I like using chemistry as a tool to work in other subjects so over the years, I have been the chemist working in teams with biologists, computer scientists, art historians, industrial designers, engineers of all types and business people. There is so much interesting work to be done in collaborations between different subjects.
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My research covers a lot of topics which are relevant to plastic.
I work on making plastics which are recyclable and so aren’t thrown away after one use. Nature has lots of materials which we can use to either inspire us to make better plastics or to create new materials never seen before.
I work on making plastics which repair themselves because that will make something last longer which is important if the plastic is in an undersea cable or in a satellite in orbit.
One application of plastic I work on is plastic for making coatings. Coatings are things like paint (like on walls or ceilings), packaging (like on food from the supermarket) and antimicrobial surfaces (which can kills bacteria and viruses).
I also like to measure and analyse materials to see what they can do and even identify them if that isn’t known – I have work with art historians wanting to identify the types of paint a dead artist has used to the painting can be repaired, dated or proven to be authentic!
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My Typical Day:
My work day is made up of three things, and each day is a different mix of them.
I could be doing chemistry research with the team of people who work with me
I could be teaching chemistry to students through lectures, tutorials or laboratory sessions.
I could be acting as a manager. I am one of the senior managers in a department of over 100 people.
I have a diary which tells me what meetings I have… but I make sure there is a good mix of chemistry in each day.
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The chemistry I am interested in needs to be done in a laboratory, and my role is to think up ideas for new experiments and then work with people in my team to see if these ideas work. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. If an experiment doesn’t work, you often find something interesting you hadn’t thought of, and that is the excitement of chemistry.
I teach chemistry to students, which can either mean lecturing (standing at the front of the classroom and talking through new subjects the students need to learn for their course, and answering chemistry questions either during the session or at the end), tutorials (a small number of students and a member of staff discuss a chemistry topic and together work through questions on it) or laboratory sessions (doing chemistry hands -on… every likes to get on with an experiment themselves, myself included)
As a manager, I have to make sure that the department is organized both in terms of people have the space and equipment to do chemistry now, but also to plan to do new and exciting research in future. This means I have to plan what will be the most interesting subjects to research in the next 5 to 10 years and provide the facilities for this research to happen in our laboratories.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d use the money to enable students to come into our labs and perform some experiments that they wouldn’t be able to do in their schools.
It’s one thing seeing something online or in a textbook, it’s another (better!) thing to do it in real life!
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
some sort of scientist or engineer
Were you ever in trouble at school?
no
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
sorry, it's this job or nothing!
What's your favourite food?
I do like a curry
Tell us a joke.
What do you call a judge with no thumbs? Justice Fingers [definitely a joke that needs to be said out loud!]
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