Profile

My name’s Jayne and I’m 28 years old- nice to meet you!

I grew up in Brighton, East Sussex in the UK (probably the World’s most cosmopolitan and fantastic city – in my opinion!).

I’ve always been interested in the military and when I was a younger teenager I wanted to join the Royal Air Force as a Pilot. I joined the Air Cadets which gave me some amazing opportunities including adventure training, a trip to Zambia, flying and gliding (I was a gliding instructor for 7 years). It was fantastic – and I’m now part of the organisation as an civilian adult instructor. In this role I mostly teach adventure training topics including the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, navigation and  hillwalking. I also do a bit of climbing and kayaking/canoeing in my spare time.

I never joined the RAF, though! When I was at college, taking chemistry, I was totally blown away by the subject – it helped that I had a fantastic teacher who was very knowledgeable and always put up with my random questions, fuelling my interest further!

Long story short, I ended up reading Chemistry at the University of Southampton Southampton (also spending a year working in a paint factory!) and now work for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

It’s not all work though, as well as my outdoor pursuits I also play clarinet, am learning the Ukulele, put a lot of time into my volunteer role as an Air Cadet Instructor, and look after my 3 chickens (free eggs!)

So, a nice marriage happened between my interest in the military and my love of chemistry when I accepted my job offer at DSTL. To be clear though, it was a tough journey of many rejection letters – a lesson in resilience itself!

I am a ‘Hazard Management Scientist’ – which is a fancy title for someone that uses chemicals to try to disclose or destroy toxic chemicals which can cause serious damage to humans. These include illicit poisons such as those used during the First World War (mustard gas, etc) and sadly during more recent years, but also toxic industrial chemicals which have legitimate uses but can also be extremely toxic to humans.

The way I go about this is varied! So I could be working on a really fundamental, brand new idea, still at the test-tubes and mixing chemical stage (think white lab coat and goggles like you’re probably envisioning), or I could be helping to test new equipment – dressed like an alien in a gas mask and chemical protective suit.

I’m also lucky enough to be part of a training team, where we teach our military colleagues about science and equipment relevant to their job, and also to be a STEM ambassador, to spread the good word of science to young people like you!