Overview

It is well known that the majority of postdocs and PhDs eventually build a successful career beyond academia and university research. Which sectors and roles they go into can however be difficult to grasp. The panel discussions of Career Exploration Month (see list of events below) aim at showcasing some of the possible career options for individuals with a research background, by hearing directly from former postdocs and PhD about their own careers.

This panel will feature Dr Mark Coughlan, R&D Physicist at Andor Technology, Dr Roy Bitrus, Director of Sales at TenzorGEO Ltd and Co Chair AFBE UK Scotland, and Dr Rebecca Lutton, CEO at Lintol Ltd.

The panellists will notably talk about their current role, how they managed the transition from academia, which skills and expertise they use from their research background, the advantages and challenges of their position, as well as advice for current postdocs and PhDs interested in similar roles.

The panel will be chaired by Dr Philip Martin, postdoctoral researcher in the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's.

Format

ALL WELCOME! This event isn't limited to postdocs and is open to anyone who is interested in attending, including those external to Queen's University Belfast.

This event will be a panel discussion. The Chair will ask prepared questions but also relate questions shared by the audience in the event’s chat.

This event won’t use slides and thus will be suitable for people using audio only (e.g. listening while having a walk etc.). Auto generated captions will be enabled for accessibility.

Our Guests

R&D Physicist at Andor Technology

Mark started his PhD at Queen’s in 2013 within the Centre for Plasma Physics where he developed ultrafast imaging techniques to study ionisation dynamics in material from laser-driven ions. After completing his PhD in 2017, he continued as a postdoc before leaving academia and moving to Andor in 2021. Mark is currently working as a Physicist in R&D. This role spans product development, optimisation and testing. As part of a team, he develops and tests new product ideas, designs experiments to find and diagnose faults, and supports production to optimise the development of products. (See job opportunities at Oxford Instruments)

Director of Sales at TenzorGEO Ltd and Co Chair AFBE UK Scotland

Roy is an Enterprise Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Unlocking Ambition Programme and an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) aficionado with over 12+ years of experience in leadership, business development, technical sales and entrepreneurship. Roy is the Director of sales with TenzorGEO working to advance and promote its unique microseismic technology and services to the energy industry, with the aim of maximising economic recovery and providing a sustainable CO2 monitoring technology to help deliver on net-zero targets.  

Roy is the co-chair of AFBE UK Scotland and is also responsible for leading the AFBE Leadership team which created the TRANSCEND training programme which is a series of sessions aimed at inspiring effective leadership while unearthing the barriers to progression into corporate leadership. He is also the host of the Leadership talk programme with senior executives of fortune 500 companies and industry leaders on topics relating to the challenges and opportunities faced in leadership, equality, equity, diversity and inclusion. Roy is also a member of Offshore Energies UK - OEUK D&I task force and has been a judge at the E&T Innovation Awards for 3 years in a row and most recently part of the Primary Engineer Judging panel. He is also a Community Council Member in one of the villages in Aberdeenshire where he resides.  

Roy has a BSc degree in Geology and Mining, an MSc in Environmental Science and a PhD in Geology with a focus on reservoir characterisation for CO2 storage. During his PhD, Roy was actively involved in student societies where he was the president of AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geology) and NSS (Nigerian student society) and a member of the Granite City Ball.

CEO at Lintol Ltd (see Rebecca’s LinkedIn profile)

Rebecca has a MEng degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, a PhD in Advanced Materials and Processing and recently completed a part time MSc in Internet of Things (IoT). These degrees have enabled her to pursue a varied career in engineering: working in medical, automotive, aerospace, defence, composite, civil and manufacturing industries. They have also contributed to build confidence in her ability to address most industry problems; from material science to production and systems management to digital infrastructure, data analytics and OEE improvements. It has been this collective of degrees and experiences that have landed Rebecca in her current role as CEO of a startup tech company specialising in data validation. Here she hopes to continue learning, building her knowledge base to prepare for whatever and wherever the next phase of her meandering career path leads her.

Other events

This event is part of ‘Career Exploration Month’ in June 2023, during which the PDC will provide weekly online interviews or panel discussion exploring the careers of PhD researchers and postdocs beyond academia. These events are open to all interested individuals, including from outside Queen’s University Belfast.

Full list of events:

• A chat with Dr Keziah Davison: Career opportunities beyond academia and how to navigate the transition (1^st June, 12:00 to 13:00, online)
• Careers in Social Sciences and Policy – panel discussion (8^th June, 12:30 to 41:00, online)
• Research careers in the Life Sciences – panel discussion (14^th June, 11:00 to 12:30, online)
• Careers for Engineers – panel discussion (22^nd June, 11:30 to 13:00)
• Careers for Arts and Humanities researchers (28^nd June, 11:30 to 12:30)