Technical skills in the spotlight

Kelly Vere, Programme Director of the Technician Commitment said: “We were thrilled to partner with the Royal Institution on this year’s Christmas Lectures, to offer technical colleagues the opportunity to work on an iconic programme and for the Royal Institution to benefit from technical expertise across the higher education and research sector. It’s a particularly poignant collaboration given as Faraday himself, the founder of the lectures, began his career as a technician at the Royal Institution. It’s fantastic to see technical skills in the spotlight – showcasing on the highest platform how science at all levels is a team effort.”

Tom Clayton, chemistry research technician at the University of Nottingham’s GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratories, and Catherine Tuckey, forensic science technician at Nottingham Trent University, both spent two weeks working with the Christmas Lectures team in London, building props and getting in front of the camera.

In at the deep end

Tom and Catherine spent the first week getting to know the team and building all of the props needed for the demonstrations. The second week was an intense schedule of rehearsing and filming.

“It was in at the deep end,” says Catherine. “I had a bit of an idea of what to expect because I've worked in theatres and back stage before, but it's still completely different when there's a film crew and you've got to dodge cameramen all the time!”

“We get our scripts the week before, you look at all the props that need making, and then there's one day to rehearse before the filming,” adds Tom. “Things that look easy on paper are not always easy in actuality. So you get changes to the script, changes to the props, and you've got to turn that round in one day. Sometimes certain demonstrations you've only rehearsed once before filming and they might not have worked that well. So that put a new level of urgency onto the stuff we were doing.

“Just working together as a team so closely with high levels of enthusiasm from everyone was really great. There were moments in the rehearsal when things weren't working and everyone was looking around at each other thinking ‘we're not actually going to pull this off...' but in every case we did.”

“I properly loved it, I had an amazing time”, says Catherine. “The people are amazing. Everyone at the Royal Institution is really lovely; the production team and the TV crew were really understanding that we hadn't done this kind of thing before and were very patient with us. Working with the people was really lovely and in an atmosphere that was so much fun!”

Adding real value

As well as providing development opportunities for Tom and Catherine, the partnership was as big boost to the Christmas lecture team’s preparations and Dominic McDonald, head of education at the Royal Institution, hopes that it will help to show the invaluable contribution of technical expertise.

“There’s a very immediate need that we have: we need an extra pair of hands but some very skilled hands, people who can actually build demos and props,” says Dominic, “So it allows us to produce a TV programme which is of better quality given the time constraints we operate under.

“They were super. We were able to give them bits of prop that were fiddly – they won't look particularly fiddly on screen but they were genuinely really fiddly – and set a question of how we should actually do this. We had an idea but actually putting it into practise in a way that would stand up to the rigours... the ability to just give them that job saved us an enormous amount of time. It was absolutely terrific.

“What made this possible was the funding from Gatsby and the commitment from the universities and supporting organisations. Obviously we also recognise there's a real shortage of technical skills. So anything we can do to show that these are valued members of teams like this is something that we're very happy to do. It's a small thing that we're doing but if it feeds into this bigger project that's happening then why on earth wouldn't we do that?”

A shot at the limelight

The experience has enabled Tom and Catherine to build stronger links between their universities and also with the Royal Institution, and has also contributed to one of the aims of the Technician Commitment around raising the visibility of technicians.

“In science, you get famous scientists supported by this huge team of technicians who very rarely get a shot at the limelight,” says Tom. “I’m really proud – I feel really lucky that I got given an opportunity to do that.

“I definitely want to enhance the links between Nottingham chemistry and the Royal Institution. They were fantastic people to work with. I've said to them if they want to run any courses or masterclasses – they do masterclasses out in schools as an outreach activity – in Nottingham then they're more than welcome to come to my building.”

“I was really grateful for the opportunity because I'm really keen to explore outreach opportunities in my career,” adds Catherine. “So it was great being able to see that done in a different setting that maybe I hadn't considered. I'm very proud that I got to contribute to this national institution that's been going on since 1825 and be a part of that history.”

More about Tom and Catherine

Tom Clayton RSci MRSC

Tom works as a chemistry research technician at the GSK Centre for Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. He’s been a technician at the university for 10 years, working in the Carbon Neutral Laboratories for the last two years. He provides expert technical support to staff and students, with a particular focus on ensuring their laboratory practices are as green and sustainable as possible. He is involved in the day-to-day running of much of the laboratory equipment, particularly the analytical kit, as well as training users and looking into new equipment requirements and processes.

Catherine Tuckey ACSFS MIScT RSciTech

Catherine is a forensic science technician at Nottingham Trent University, responsible for preparing practical experiments in the forensic teaching laboratory and their ‘crime scene house’ – a space dedicated to setting up example crime scenes for their forensic science students. Catherine joined the university following experience as a forensic scientist for a private forensics provider, wanting to apply her professional experience in an educational setting.  She also runs outreach sessions for schools in their dedicated crime scene laboratory.