Head of Advanced Light Microscopy &
Super-resolution Microscopy facility
University of Edinburgh
Research Associate Professor
Deputy Director of COMPARE
The University of Nottingham
Professor of Molecular Pharmacology
Director of COMPARE
The University of Nottingham
Regius Professor of Life Sciences and
Academic Lead for Research Strategy
University of Dundee
An imaging scientist helps the users get the best out of the equipment to answer their question.
An imaging scientist is a bit of everything so like a biologist, chemist; you should be able to be a physicist, and you should understand computers. So is a bit of a chameleon.
A good day at work is when I can sit with some users at the microscope, and they say 'wow' this is a good image.
We do a lot of outreach work with schoolkids as well to show them how beautiful an image is. That's my passion.
Probably the most important is making sure that things work and people have solutions available to them.
I think ultimately you are a scientist asking a question and you're using the facilities you have to do that.
Someone that can get the most out of the equipment and can work with people to work out what they want. Getting the best results possible from that sample.
So I'm training new PhD students making sure that they are getting sensible and useful data that would help them with their projects.
We're all scientists here whether you know someone's doing a PhD, postdoc or you're a technician.
An imaging scientist is used to seeing things that no one else sees.
An imaging scientist has excellent imaging and analytical skills. I think that analytical skills are as important as imaging skills.
It's a great opportunity to learn new things because I have never worked with glass before. I have now been at NSG for about three years.
An imaging scientist is one comfortable with exposing themselves to new techniques and learning all the time.
