Profile
Jenny Hill
-
About Me:
I am a big fan of being outdoors and when I’m not at work I might be climbing, cycling or paddling down the river with my sister in her canoe.
-
Read more
I love nature and believe looking after the environment is important so at weekends I sometimes do conservation work in nature reserves with a local charity. It beats going to the gym and I enjoy the company of the other volunteers. I like reading, a wide variety of things but top of the list would be an autobiography by someone who has had an unusual life, it’s interesting to see the world from their point of view.
-
Read more
When I left university I was trained as a scientist so it seemed like the obvious thing to get a job working in a lab using the skills I had learned. I enjoyed this loads, but I found that there were other jobs connected with research that I thought were important and interesting, and I thought I could do them well (maybe a bit better than I could do research!). I was keen to do a job that uses my scientific skills and knowledge, but also uses lots of other general skills and allows me to learn more about the wider process of development of medicines and vaccines. Project managers work in many types of company and organisation and the work they do varies hugely. Usually they need to understand finances and budgets, and arrange meetings and keep records of these, making sure that everyone does the work they have promised to do. In medical research they can draft important documents needed for the team to use in the project or trial, for participants in the trial, and for the regulators who check to make sure the study being carried out is ethical and conducted properly. I interact with loads of different people, for example scientists, doctors and nurses, finance staff, suppliers, legal and contract experts, which is a great part of my job.
-
My Typical Day:
Before the working at home government guidance I’d go into the office in the morning and have a natter with my office mates, then most of the day I’m at the computer with a few meetings online. Most days I have lots of different tasks to work on so I change topic a lot during the day which means good activities are mixed up with ones that are less fun!
-
What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d like to use the funds to cover the cost of making a short film of my colleagues to show what we do. In my team there is a principal investigator, a post-doctoral scientist, some PhD students, a research assistant and me the project manager, we work together but our jobs and day to day activies are quite different. When I was at school and even a student at university I didn’t know how research worked and what was involved, this would be a way to give people an insight into what things really look and feel like.
-
Education:
I went to my local state schools until I was 18. While I was thinking of where to apply to for university I was fortunate to visit Oxford on a shadowing day (where I spent a day with a current student seeing what it was like). I thought it looked good and I was doing well at school so I thought I’d apply but I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, thinking I probably wouldn’t get in. I did, and I spent 4 years there studying biochemistry.
-
Work History:
Waitress and kitchen assistant (evenings while at school and in university holidays)
PhD student
Post-doctoral researcher
-
Current Job:
Project manager in vaccine development
-
My Interview
-
How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
outdoorsy science enabler
What did you want to be after you left school?
I didn't have a proper plan, I was always indecisive and a bit timid.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not serious trouble, just the usual ones (too much chatting, looking scruffy)
What's your favourite food?
Peanut butter
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I would be less easily embarrassed. I'd be better at rock climbing, and I'd have curly hair.
-