I have been at the University of East Anglia on and off since 1998 originally studying for a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences. Immediately afterwards I undertook a
taught Master's program in Bioinformatics, staying at the same university.
After a short period in the real world, I returned
to the School of Biological Sciences. I completed a three year Molecular
Microbiological Research Technician post with Dr
Gabriella Kelemen, studying the model organism Streptomyces
coelicolor . After my time in BIO I changed departments
and joined the School of Chemical
Sciences and Pharmacy as an Instrument Technician working under the Workshop Supervisor, Chief Technician, Tim Lane. Here I was responsible for repairing and maintaining various
pieces of equipment used within the school. Concurrently I designed
and programmed a website for the Workshop on the ASP.NET platform
using Visual Basic. The site takes online submissions for new
jobs (within the School) and organises them for the Workshop Technicians.
I then worked with Thomas Mock as a Laboratory Technician.
In this post I helped to setup the Life Sciences Laboratory in
the School of Environmental Sciences. I also contributed various technical skills as required in and out of the laboratory; including writing this website.
Following my post with Thomas, I have held several temporary contracts at the University. I returned to The School of Chemistry (formally Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy); again as an Instrument Technician. Later, I gained additional skills and knowledge working for the Director of Safety Services, Paul Donson. This role was the Safety Technician, who is responsible for Radiation safety duties; including the maintenance of statutory records, testing radiation and contamination monitors, undertaking monitoring surveys and management of radioactive wastes.
Currently I am back in Environmental Sciences. This time working for the Laboratory Manager - Liz Rix, as an Analytical Technician. I am now learning the skills to analyse environmental samples on a variety of instruments, including: a nutrient analyser (Auto-Analyser), total carbon and nitrogen analyser, ion chromatography and various manual techniques such as chemically reactive phosphate analysis.
- Dalton K.A., Thibessard A., Hunter J.I.B., Kelemen G.H. (2007). A novel compartment, the 'subapical stem' of the aerial hyphae, is the location of a sigN-dependent, developmentally distinct transcription in Streptomyces coelicolor. Mol. Micro. (DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2007.05684.x)
I am an Erasmus student from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM), Spain, studying my final year of Undergraduate in Biology at UEA. My experience in a summer program at the Microbial Ecology laboratory at the Centre of Advanced studies in Blanes (CEAB, CSIC), Spain, where I worked in microbial biodiversity in alpine lakes, encouraged me to do my final year project in marine microbiology. My project is a side project to Jan Strauss PhD thesis, in which I am studying the distribution of the bacteria-like rodopsin gene found in Fragilariopsis cylindrus in marine eukaryotic phytoplankton.
Currently Clara is at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany; where she is writing her Masters theses.