Career Pathways
Many thanks to Dr Peter Knipe from Queen’s University Belfast, who came into school in November to give a very interesting and informative talk to years 12, 13 and 14 Chemistry pupils about the study of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Medicinal Chemistry at university. He gave examples of possible career pathways as well as explaining current and past very successful research projects in his department.

Smart Materials: Building the Future
Also in November, a group of year 10 pupils attended a very entertaining talk given by Dr Anna Ploszajski, an award winning materials scientist and engineer. The title of the talk was “Smart Materials: Building the Future” and was part of the W5 Science and Discovery Month.
Dr Ploszajski explained her passion for the study of how the atoms of different substances behave and how her career path led her into this cutting edge field. She illustrated how smart materials can be colour changing, heat sensing and self-healing using pinecones and a shape memory alloy spring that regained its shape when heated.
Anna was a fantastic and inspirational role model. She was very approachable and was keen to answer questions and discuss her career with our pupils afterwards.




Chemistry at Work Exhibition
On Tuesday 19th November, our year 11 Chemistry pupils attended the annual Chemistry at Work Exhibition in the Whitla Hall at Queen’s University. This Royal Society sponsored event is organised by the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department at Queen’s. It is a great opportunity to find out about careers available and how Chemistry is used in local and global companies such as Almac, Randox, Bombardier and BOC Gas. The event involves a series of interactive talks, the highlight was the talk presented by BOC Gas in conjunction with W5 which involved a loud explosion that made everyone jump!