New recruits

We are delighted to welcome two recent graduates who have joined us as interns: Tom Horton and Jake Harding.

Tom comes to us fresh from Bristol University where he achieved a First Class MSci(Hons) in Chemistry, in a four year course that included a year at the University of British Columbia.  His course covered a wide range of inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, including researching potential alternatives to halogenated flame retardants – an area that Oakdene Hollins looking into at this very moment.  He says that he worked with “all air sensitive chemistry, using various Schlenk and glovebox techniques”…  But perhaps more usefully to Oakdene Hollins his degree has proved he is proficient in handling and processing large amounts of data and "producing charts and tables to convince his audience of his results" – which he collaboratively synthesised with literature reviews and analytical lab-based reports into - ultimately - a full written thesis.

Jake joins us with a 2:1 in Physics from Warwick University, including achieving a First in his final year modules and in the ‘Foundations of Finance’ module taught by Warwick Business School.  His interest in physics was clearly kindled by his work experience at the Open University where he gained a gold CREST award for a new contribution to a field of study – in his case, calibrating a weather sensor of the ‘PIRATE’ telescope and then supervising the students using it.

Both Tom and Jake speak some Spanish and have retail experience, so we expect them to band together and make use of their glovebox techniques and their pirate telescopes to bring a whole new approach to our circular economy work.