Richard O’Connor
Senior Cleanroom Technician
Researchers come in virtually around the clock as space is at such a premium. I ordered some acetone last week which usually comes within a couple of days but it’s still not arrived. Normally we have twelve bottles in but we’re completely out now so I’m on tenterhooks looking round the corner for Fisher vans every five minutes. If the researchers don’t have the solvent, there’s about three or four processes that just stop. It sounds mundane but for research, acetone is fundamental.
It’s my job to keep research moving. If strict procedures aren’t followed, clean rooms can become contaminated which might adversely affect somebody else’s work but that’ll only come to light, as it’s all unseen, when a device throws up an odd result. And then people are backtracking to find out what the aberration is attributable to - that’s when you find out the person on the bench before you has carried out the wrong process in the wrong place and hence the chemical contamination. We’re constantly learning and adapting to make sure any procedural errors aren’t repeated. I enjoy the more technical parts of job - providing direct technical support at the sharp end as it were.
I’d like to become really good at something specific that I can point at and say “I’m really good at that” especially in an area as exciting as graphene. On Sunday evenings though, my wife says I can be a bit distant when I’m thinking about the week ahead.