Education

2003 – 2006 PhD “Polynuclear Lanthanide Complexes and Protein Surface Recognition”
The University of Manchester, supervised by Professor Stephen Faulkner

2000 – 2003 BSc (Hons) 2:1, Chemistry, The University of Cardiff

1998 – 2000 Coed-y-lan Comprehensive School, Pontypridd
Biology (C), Chemistry (C) and Physics (C)

1996 – 1998 Coed-y-lan Comprehensive School, Pontypridd
GCSE: 8 (A) Grades & 2 (B) Grades

Work Experience
2011 – to date I am the Picture Editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), where I am responsible for sourcing images for all publications produced by the RSC for both print and digital reproduction. In particular, I help source images for editorial magazines, book covers, marketing campaigns and educational outreach projects. Appropriate licensing agreements and copyright permissions are obtained for all images, and fees negotiated in accordance with the budget available. All images are stored and usage recorded where applicable, as well as tracking expenditure for multiple products and recharging fees as appropriate. I maintain an excellent relationship with all external image libraries and actively seek new contacts within the picture buying industry. I have experience commissioning photographers, videographers, graphic designers and illustrators for the RSC and negotiate competitive contractual agreements and fees. I also provide chemistry-specific knowledge to any part of the design service offered and help advise RSC staff with regards to copyright queries relating to imagery-only. I am also a science writer for the RSC and have published a four-page feature article, numerous research articles and blogs for the members’ magazine Chemistry World.

2009 – 2011 During this time, I was a Development Editor for the RSC, where I was responsible for commissioning high-quality primary and review content for the chemistry journals; ChemComm, ChemSocRev and Chemical Science. I regularly carried out market share, usage and citation analysis to monitor the journals development and highlight any scientific trends to the Managing Editor. The data was then used to develop and implement commissioning strategies for the journal portfolio, as well as a means for identifying suitable Associate Editors, Editorial and Advisory board members for each of the journals. I was responsible for analysing and presenting statistics in an informative manner for editorial board meetings and internal product reviews. In addition to updating journal web pages, blogs and twitter pages on a daily basis.

2007 – 2009 Here I was an Assistant Editor for ChemComm (CC), which involved processing manuscripts (from submission through to acceptance), maintaining workflow and answering author/referee queries on a daily basis. I also commissioned primary and review content, as well as negotiating cover artwork for the journal. I regularly wrote news articles for CC content and delegated writing tasks to other Assistant Editor’s within the team, in addition to sending press releases to media contacts for the journal.

I was responsible for the day-to-day assistance of an Associate Editor’s Editorial Office, which involved responding promptly and effectively to all queries and being pro-active in keeping workflow up-to-date. I worked closely with Professor Jonathan Sessler, to help with the running of his office and to aid in the promotion and marketing of the US Austin, Texas Office.
I have trained two job swaps within the department and fully trained a graduate trainee as an Assistant Editor for the team. I provided support and advice for the less experienced members of the CC team and pro-actively deputised for my manager when required.

2003 – 2006 Alongside my own postgraduate PhD research, I was a demonstrator in the undergraduate teaching laboratories (teaching 1st – 3rd year undergraduates).

1998 – 2003 I worked as a veterinary nurse in Treforest Veterinary Clinic. My role included general receptionist work, preparing prescriptions, assisting the vets in consultations and during operations, developing X-rays, and testing blood & urine samples. I also worked at this practice (1995 – 1998) as a voluntary worker during summer holidays and Saturday mornings, until I was offered the paid position in 1998.

IT Skills and Related Training

I have extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office, CS6 Adobe (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), Scholar One, Word Press blogs and Drupal. I am also proficient in a range of chemistry software packages, including the ChemDraw, SciFinder and Web of Science.

Conferences

During my PhD I attended several conferences, in both the UK and Europe, where I presented a poster at each meeting. I was also a member of the audio-visual team for the International Actinides Conference held in Manchester in 2005. During my time at the RSC, I have successfully represented RSC publishing at several UK conferences, as well as European conferences held in Lithuania, Italy and Sweden. I have also been an RSC stand manager; twice at the US Biophysical Society meetings held in Boston (Feb 2009) and San Francisco (Feb 2010), as well as at the EMRS meeting in Strasbourg, France (Jun 2010).

Personal Interests & Achievements

I am currently a ChemNet Ambassador for the RSC and enjoy promoting chemistry at careers events held at local secondary schools and university chemistry departments in the UK. I am also a proactive member of the RSC’s Sports and Social Club committee, where I enjoy organising fun events for staff members each year.

During my time at Cardiff University I was elected each year as the chemistry representative for the undergraduates in my year. In Manchester University, I was involved in UCAS tours, Salter’s Festivals and have worked closely with school visits to the department, and Master classes. I have also undertaken the ‘Researchers in Residence’ scheme, where I was placed at Westhoughton High School for a week. I also received 2nd prize for my final year PhD presentation.

In my spare time I enjoy reading and have set up a regular book club meeting to discuss and develop reading variety. I also enjoy painting with watercolours and acrylics, where I have exhibited my artwork at local art exhibitions.

References

Available upon request