My most recent role was managing the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Thermal Methods, Infra-red and X-ray instrumentation in the Materials Science Laboratory in the Food Science Department of Nottingham University.
However, I was also heavily involved in the teaching, tutoring and supervision of students. I supervised and provided advice to students, from undergraduate through masters to PhD level, on the design, running and interpretation of experiments. I gave lectures in Confectionery Production, Spectroscopy, general Physical Methods, Metabolomics and the use of Nuclear magnetic Resonance and MRI imaging in Food Science. I also contributed extensively to general teaching and supervised undergraduate projects and basic practical work.
One of the teaching modules was an advanced problem solving course where groups of 5-6 students were given a large amount of information on a particular problem in the Foods area. These were real problems submitted by Industrial contacts. At the end of a 2-week period, the students had to make sense of all the (sometimes contradictory) information and give a presentation coupled with their best attempt at a solution. We teachers were called facilitators rather than lecturers or tutors.
This approach to learning has influenced me, and made me rethink my teaching, such that it involved challenging and questioning students, rather than providing ready made answers. Ready made answers are however sometimes necessary!

My last formal task was the online supervision of theoretical Masters-students’ projects, which had been converted from lab-based work, during the Pandemic.
Our students were often from International backgrounds, for example from China, India, Greece, Iran, Chile etc. etc. I adored the interaction with other cultures and learning about language and other ways to live.