Associate Researcher

00:01 I work for Pfizer which is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world.

00:04 We make a range of different compounds such as Lipitor, which is anti-cholesterol compound

00:08 and Viagra, which is probably the most famous compound we make.

00:12 So in my department I work for chemical research and development

00:15 and we’re responsible for making drug substance supplies,

00:18 that’s the active ingredient in medicines

00:21 and we make that to fund clinical studies and ultimately to transfer it to manufacturing to fund the marketplace.

00:27 My role in particular I guess is to lead a project team

00:31 to work very closely with analysts and formulators and chemists

00:36 and to really make sure that all aspects of delivering the material

00:40 and delivering the root are looked after and commentated.

00:43 We do pretty much what you’d imagine at school,

00:45 we get round bottomed flasks and we fill them with white solids and different reagents

00:50 and we warm them up and we cool them down and then we analyse to see what we’ve got

00:55 and then we try and isolate compounds. 

00:57 So it’s kind of, for me, it’s a little bit like cooking, you just add ingredients and then you heat it up

01:02 and then hopefully you get the right product out at the end,

01:04 and sometimes it’s like cooking, you know, sometimes

01:06 what you get out the end is exactly what you want

01:08 and other times it’s a complete mess and you have to start again, back to the drawing board.

01:13 I think I really enjoy working with a whole range of different people so,

01:16 you know my job changes every day.

01:18 Sometimes I’m talking to analysts, sometimes I’m talking to formulators, sometimes I’m talking to clinicians,

01:24 and just a whole range of different people, so you know no one day is ever the same in this place, which is good.

01:30 So I left school and I felt I was pretty good at the sciences so I went off to university

01:37 and I studied environmental chemistry, did that for four years in Edinburgh.

01:40 After that I wanted to pursue the chemistry part, the organic synthesis piece,

01:45 so I went off to Nottingham and did a PhD there for three years

01:49 and from that I came straight to Pfizer after that.

01:51 I guess I would try and advise you to, you know,

01:53 if you’ve got a chemistry teacher or something talk to them about the different roles and opportunities there might be

02:01 I guess if you really love the practical side of it

02:05 and you love making things and creating things then it’s a really great job to do.

02:08 So try and talk to someone and maybe look into opportunities to study further,

02:13 university courses or there may be,

02:15 you know, a large pharmaceutical company or a small company near you that

02:19 does chemistry and maybe try and talk to them,

02:23 find out about the different roles that are involved and see how it goes.

02:26 So the company as a whole, globally, is huge.

02:29 I couldn’t put a figure on that.

02:31 On this site I think there are about between 5 and 6 thousand people.

02:35 So, that gives you the magnitude of the different types of people you can interact with every day.

02:39 A whole range of backgrounds, skillsets, the diversity here is just enormous.