Profile
Krishna Mistry
My CV
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Education:
I went to a secondary school in Leicester where I did my GCSE’s and then went to a separate college to do my A-levels. I studied Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Manchester which was 4 years. I then moved to the University of Bristol where I did a PhD in chemistry which also took 4 years.
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Qualifications:
I did my GCSE’s in triple science (chemistry, biology and physics), maths, English language and English literature, humanities, IT, French and health and social care.
My A-levels were in chemistry, biology, maths and further maths. I also did an AS-level in psychology.
I got a Masters of Chemistry at Manchester and a PhD in Bristol. -
Work History:
My first ever job was when I was 14 and had a paper round, I liked having my own pocket money so as soon as I could work I did. I had a part time job at Argos when I was at college, and one of my jobs when I was at university was working in a call centre.
When I was doing my PhD I started doing some chemistry job for the university which was teaching the students in the laboratory sessions and doing experiments and science shows for student visiting from local schools and colleges. -
Current Job:
I currently work for Johnson Matthey on their Graduate programme. I have moved around 3 different jobs in the company over the past two years to get different experiences in different areas of chemistry. I do a lot of experiments and this mean I also have a lot of office work to do to make sure everything in recorded properly.
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About Me:
I’m a friendly, outgoing self confessed geek who loves chemistry, baking and eating!
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Read more
I currently live in Reading near the river Thames and love going for early morning walks, where I get to see all the baby geese and ducks (great time of year!). I love to bake and cook in my spare time (no surprises there as I’m a chemist) and my absolutely favourite cake to bake (and eat) is milk chocolate and pistachio squares. I like to indulge my creative side by doing cross-stitching – the scene of the Lion King is my best project so far.
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Read more
Sometimes, the way things are made can be very old (like a cake recipe from your great great grandma), and although it makes what we want it might not be the best way. For example, when making cakes we used to beat the butter and sugar together by hand, but not we can use electric whisks which makes things a lot easier and more efficient. This is essentially what my job is. I look at the ways we make materials now and see if we can improve them. Now, I did this on a small scale (like making 12 cupcakes at home) and things can be really easy compared to when you need to make 12,000 cupcakes in a factory. Things have to be very different when you’re thinking about mixing ingredients together and heating and cooking your cakes. This is all the same when we consider chemical reaction to make material, we need to make sure everything is safe but will still produce what we want to sell to our customers. I test our methods and collect specific information which can help me at home cupcake scale to predict what we need on factory cupcake scale.
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My Typical Day:
I get up very early and go for a walk in the morning sunshine to wake me up. I make sure I’m ready to do some science and button up my labcoat, put on my safety goggles and gloves – all ready to mix some chemicals together. I then spend the day carefully mixing just the right amount of chemicals together to make my material – which can be a liquid or solid and could be various colours.
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After going for a morning walk in the sunshine to wake up I get ready to go into the laboratory. It is important that I’m safe so put on my lab coat, safety goggles and gloves which protect me from any chemicals which might cause me harm if I had an accident. I will spend some time planning my experiment, doing all the sums to make sure I’ve adding things up correctly so I don’t make too much or too little of what I want to. I measure out my liquid materials using measuring cylinders and carefully pouring them into a round flask ready for my experiment to begin. Some materials are a solid so I need to weigh these out using scales. I think about the right order to add my chemical ingredient and make sure I do this carefully, sometimes thing heat up very quickly. I make sure I am writing down all the observations I may see, whether the solution changes colour, if something dissolved or if a solid appears. It is important to note these down for the future so you don’t forget.
Sometimes things need to be left to cook for a while – this is usually a great time to go get some lunch or have a tea and biscuit break! I think find my experiment and tidy everything away ready to start again with a new experiment for tomorrow.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
geeky, friendly and happy
What did you want to be after you left school?
I thought I wanted to be a doctor and go into medical research when I was in school. I am a doctor now but a doctor of chemistry!
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I used to get told off for talking too much in class.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Mary J Blige
What's your favourite food?
Cinnamon buns!
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I wish for unlimited cakes, I wish for it to be sunny during the day and only rain at night when we are sleeping, I wish I lived near a beach!
Tell us a joke.
Why are chemists great for solving problems? Because they always have a solution! (I know a lame chemistry joke!)
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