Dr Wesleigh Dawsmith

As a young child, I spent much of my time being taken to the science and natural history museums in London and loved seeing all the different exhibits (my favourite was the space exhibit), hands-on activities and shows (who doesn't love a methane bubble fire ball as a child?). For me, science (and STEM) became synonymous with fun and exciting.

My mum. She was a science teacher in further education (and now secondary). I spent a lot of time growing up around a lab/classroom and always remember seeing how much joy the students got from being taught to find thing out for themselves through practical experimentation.

Later on at university, I was lucky enough to become a SEMS ambassador at Queen Mary University of London. It was during the many outreach events that I came to realise I really enjoyed inspiring the next generation of students to follow STEM subjects as a career. So following the completion of my PhD, I decided to become a secondary school science technician which gave me the chance to continue to inspire the students through STEM clubs and practicals.

Having fun and inspiring young people to engage with STEM.

Try and get some work experience in a lab or at a chemical plant (or at least with the technicians at school). It's not until you have seen how the real world works that you know if something is right for you or not.

Also, if you are planning on going straight from school into the workplace, do some light reading about H&S at work and COSSH forms. Having an idea about this can really set you up well for the first weeks of your training.

Seeing the students' enthusiasm and commitment to STEM, along with the wows you get during a thermite reaction, has only made me want to try harder to offer more outreach opportunities and a wider variety of extracurricular activities to inspire them further.

Being able to work with such an amazing team who have supported me with all my escapades (outreach work and developing practicals), which has not only helped me grow as an individual but has also led to the achievements for which I was given this award.

I grew up with a diagnosis of dyslexia and dyspraxia and received an amazing amount of support, which really helped me excel as an individual and achieve my full potential. However, it was later in adult life following some personal difficulties that I finally got my diagnosis for autism. While coming to terms with this is taking a while (not having the personal freedom to change who you are as quickly as you like), it has enabled me to re-evaluate what I find important in life and led me to find a role where I could inspire the next generation.

Hydrogen. It fuelled early stars which upon going supernova gave way to the larger elements that make up the galaxy today.