When we last sat down with Aoife Taylor she told us about her experiences of being a woman in STEM, what it was like carrying out a PhD during the pandemic and how she tackled her impostor syndrome. Now she is the CEO of para-lab exhibition, really loved what they were doing and wanted to get involved. Aled was already working with them using his materials so I decided to join his team along with Sunny (artist) and Helen (scientist). We started to investigate adding chlorophyll because I was studying a chlorophyll pre-cursor as part of my PhD and I was making interesting hues of green and blue when synthesising it. So, we started experimenting with spinach! Eventually we got to algae which we found made the composite a really attractive colour. It also happened that the algae improved its strength too, so it had a practical application we weren’t expecting.
We thought about other additives that might improve the properties of the material and graphene was one of them. So, we entered the Eli Harari competition to see if this was an idea worth pursuing. We won the first prize (£50,000) and that really gave us the means to do some serious material investigation! After that we were able to secure a number of other grants and have been working at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) under the Bridging the Gap scheme. Being at the GEIC is great because it's a start-up hub and everyone is happy to help each other out.
E: That’s amazing! What’s it like being on the business side of things rather than the science side?
A: I love it, it’s a really great opportunity to expand my horizons and after my PhD I was fed up with being in the lab. I’ve also found that I feel more confident in this role and setbacks don’t knock me like they used to. So, for example, when I was doing my PhD, it would really knock my confidence if I didn’t get the results I wanted and I hated presenting my work to people. But with this I’m happy to get up and show off what we’re doing and even if we get setbacks like not getting a grant, it doesn’t worry me as that’s just part and parcel of it isn’t it?
E: That’s great to hear! So, had you had any business training before taking on this role? Or has it been provided on the job?
A: I’d never had any formal training in terms of courses or anything like that, but I have taken part in quite a few competitions and events that are aimed at developing business skills in scientists. The University has actually been really great at providing those kinds of opportunities so obviously I took part in as many as I could find! One of the most helpful ones was BiotechYes, it’s a competition where you come up with an imaginary business, a product, and then put together a pitch deck and present it to the rest of the group. As you’re doing that you get support and feedback from businesspeople, it was a really useful learning experience. One of the things I learned that was particularly helpful was how to present a business case (asking for money), which is very different from how you’d present your research findings.
head to The University of Manchester’s Biotechnology page. Further information