Profile
Daniel Hurst
My CV
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Education:
Secondary school and sixthform – The Dukeries Academy, Nottinghamshire – 2008-2015
Undergraduate studies – The University of York, with a year in industry at AstraZeneca in Cambridge – 2015-2019
Post-graduate studies – The University of Liverpool – 2019-2023
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Qualifications:
GCSE’s – I discovered I really enjoy STEM subjects at GCSE, but also really enjoyed the creative subjects and music too!
Maths – A*
English Lit, English Lang, Chemistry, Biology, R.E. – A
Music, Physics – B
Creative & Media BTEC Level 2 – Distinction*A-Levels – This is where I really narrowed down chemistry as my favourite of the STEM subjects.
Chemistry, Maths – A*
Biology – A
Further Maths AS – CUndergrad – When I first went to uni, I didn’t think I’d end up doing a PhD, in fact I was against the idea! However, over the degree I really enjoyed my studies and also enjoyed academia.
Chemistry, with a year in Industry (integrated Masters’) – First class with Honours -
Work History:
- Paintball marshall – During sixthform, I worked as a paintball marshall. Yes, it is as painful as it sounds… However, I really loved it! It was the perfect job for me at the time. Very very different to what I do now.
- Customer Assistant at a Sainsbury’s Local – During my first 3 years at York, I worked 16 hours a week over the weekends. This meant that I had to be really organised with my university work to make sure I didn’t fall behind. But, it also meant I had more money to enjoy myself with!
- Industrial placement student at AstraZeneca – I worked in their Early Discovery Chemistry team in Oncology, basically I made potential new cancer treatments! I was in the lab at least 9-5 monday to friday, and I really got to grips with practical chemistry.
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Current Job:
I am currently a Post-graduate research student, working towards my PhD in Mobile Robotics for Organic Synthesis. Basically, I am taking a lot of equipment scientists usually use to help speed up their research and then getting a mobile robot to use them all, so the scientist can go do more complicated tasks!
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About Me:
I am a Chemistry and Robotics PhD student in Liverpool and have a mild obsession with houseplants! I love hikes, runs and food!
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Read more
I am a PhD student in Liverpool. I have over 30 houseplants, enjoy gaming and love keeping active! My favourite food is pasta, my favourite type of cake is red velvet and have seen the animated TV series ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ more times than I can count! My pronouns are he/him.
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Read more
I am a PhD student at the University of Liverpool. My project uses mobile robots to carry out chemsitry in a laboratory, just like how a scientist would! My work lets scientists spend their time doing more difficult work.
The mobile robot I use is a robotic arm on top of a base, that has wheels on the bottom and can drive itself around the lab. It has sensors coming out each side, making sure it doesnt hit anything and so it knows where it is. This robot can then go up to normal equipment found in the lab and interact with it through code and software that we have made in my group.
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My Typical Day:
I wake up nice and early and have a coffee and some cereal before heading into the lab. In the lab, I will get the robots to do little tasks. Then I put all the little tasks together to get the robot to do something more complicated!
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I’m an early bird, so I usually wake up at around 6 am and get my coffee and some breakfast whilst watching some TV before getting prepped to head into the lab. Once in the lab, I will get the robots to try to perform tasks I want to achieve. When I’ve got lots of little tasks carried out, I put them all together to get the robot to do really cool stuff that a human would usually do. With COVID, I now have to do all my office stuff and my analysis at home, so whenever I’m not in the lab, I am in my bedroom, at my desk. Although I miss the office, the endless access to snacks is definitely a perk! Most evenings I have something organised, whether its my running club, climbing, volunteering or catching up with friends (socially distanced!). Then, its usually off to bed by 11 pm to do it all again tomorrow!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would use the money to give under-priveledged children an experience of chemistry laboratories!
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Starting the robot-uprising!
What did you want to be after you left school?
Absolutely no idea, I just knew I wanted to go to university.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Very very rarely, I was the shy, quiet one.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Jorja Smith
What's your favourite food?
Pizza
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Invisibility, teleportation, immortality
Tell us a joke.
I recently sold my hoover, it was just collecting dust
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