Ann Wheeler

I had the opportunity to go work in the United States with Clare Waterman (who is now at the NIH), and I spent two years 'postdoc-ing' with her and learned all these advanced technologies. That was what turned me into an imaging scientist.

A project that has worked very well is ESRIC on which we've partnered with Heriot-Watt University. We've made ourselves become a national and international centre for super-resolution excellence. It's been great because actually it's expanded and now I’m working with people in Dundee, Strathclyde and Newcastle as well as our original partners at Heriot-Watt.

I've been overseeing facilities now for 10 years. The most important part of my role is engaging academics, heads of department and outside organisations. The University of Edinburgh is very large, and in Scotland, itself is a great place to work. Due to the fact that we have a smaller number of universities maybe seven or eight to do serious research all of them do imaging and part of my role is to try and make this more cohesive so we can get science done better.