• Question: Do you feel like you make an impact on your local area with the work you do?

    Asked by anon-199755 to Sylvia, Sumit, Martin, Kate, Bryony, Aryanne on 1 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      I think I do as one of the aspects of my job is to go out to schools to try and encourage students to think about careers in science and engineering. Having been the first member of my family to go to University, I firmly believe in the opportunities offered by a university education to those that are willing and able to engage in the process.

    • Photo: Sumit Konar

      Sumit Konar answered on 3 Mar 2019:

      I have been working in two projects that will be helpful for rural areas in India and other similar places where you have plenty of sunlights; 1st project is to clean water using very small amount of catalyst and Sunlight. The photo-catalysis will help to kill the bacteria and other pollutants in water. My 2nd project will store sunlight in a phase change material and can be used as cooking food at night. Solar-cooking will reduce the fuel consumption and pollution related to smoke.

    • Photo: Sylvia Soldatou

      Sylvia Soldatou answered on 3 Mar 2019:

      I think I do, as I have been involved in several outreach and public engagement activities since the beginnning of my career. I’ve been visiting schools and doing chemistry experiments with the students or having students visiting us here at the university. I beleive through these activities we encourage students to continue their studies and show them that everyoe has a chance to get a degree in the field they are most interested in.

    • Photo: Bryony Hockin

      Bryony Hockin answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      I hope so! As part of my PhD I do lots of activities with people all over Fife and to show them how fun and interesting chemistry can be. We go and visit schools to show them fun science experiments. Recently I also visited some local prisons to help with their education programs too. That was really fun and it really felt like I was helping make a difference, because prisoners often don’t get the chance to learn about science, so they were all really interested and asked lots of questions. I am the first person in my family to ever go to university, so I think it’s important to show people that no matter where you come from or who you are, you can do science, and even go to university to study science if you want to!

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