International Women in Engineering Day

Laura Grindey
Job Role: Chemical Engineer
Company: Eternis Fine Chemicals UK

When I was younger, the manufacturing industry just existed, and I never really thought about who built these sites. This changed when I started thinking about university. I thoroughly enjoyed maths and chemistry at school which pushed me towards a dual honour’s degree. However, my maths teacher recommended chemical engineering as a option having completed a chemical engineering degree himself. Getting into the University of Sheffield was a huge achievement for me and really motivated me to succeed as a chemical engineer. I felt so driven to gain knowledge and experience that I sent my CV to a company’s sales department in first year hoping someone in the company would organise a placement for me! Despite all odds, it worked! At university, committees and societies were also a huge part of my life. This is something I’ve kept up after university by engaging with both IChemE’s National Early Careers Committee and European Young Engineers. I am so grateful to have core roles in these committees so I can promote engineering and engage with a worldwide network of engineers. In my current role, I enjoy the variability I get; I’ve been able to install site modifications, build and lead the continuous improvement system, and trial process changes on our existing plant. There is so much a chemical engineer can be… a commissioning manager, a process safety advisor, a design engineer and at Eternis Fine Chemicals, I feel I get to experience this all.

Alex Wright
Role: Engineering Graduate
Company: Croda

I have always been surrounded by engineering one way or another growing up, whether this was building bird boxes next to my dad in the garage with my own little toolkit or exploring science parks on a weekend. This naturally made me curious about how things work and how they can help people and solve problems. To continue to develop myself and my knowledge, I knew I needed to gain a wide range of experiences and I sought out opportunities within research, manufacturing and innovation. Each of these roles, though vastly different were all a form of engineering and motivated me to pursue a career as an Engineer, this continually provided me new challenges.

In my current role within a Global Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Team I drive world-wide projects covering a range of topics from safe control of work to the specialised engineering branch of functional safety. I enjoy the variety of work and collaborating with people from different backgrounds and cultures, many of whom have become my mentors and role models, as they continually inspire and motivate me on my personal and professional journey.

Hannah Mohsen
Role: Production Engineer
Company: Solutia UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Eastman Chemicals

I always knew I wanted to work in something related to science, and my brother suggested I looked into Engineering as a career path. While researching engineering in general my friend’s mum introduced me to Chemical Engineering and I was hooked. I went to the University of Sheffield, and while studying for my Masters I was offered a job at Eastman where I had done a year placement. Since joining two years ago, I have worked as the Production Engineer on two production plants, and I am now working on a multi-million pound project as the process expert. From day one, the team of operators and day staff have always made me feel welcome and pushed me to be the best that I can be, which has allowed me to grow well beyond what I could expect straight out of University. I am now involved in an employee group as the point of contact for 14 locations across the EMEA region to help with organising activities to encourage the professional development of employees. Through this I have been able to continue to push myself and challenge myself to come up with solutions that can be implemented in multiple different countries.