School of Chemical and Physical Sciences brochures Forensic Science brochure 2019 | Page 25

FORENSIC SCIENCE | 25 Student spotlight “I graduated from Keele University in 2012 after an amazing experience. I spent 4 years at Keele and learnt so much in that short amount of time. Keele provides a brilliant atmosphere; being a campus university it has everything that you need on campus makes it the transition to university life easier and enjoyable. Also, the nightlife was fantastic and provided new things whenever possible, it couldn’t be faulted. Forensic Science is such a broad area of science, and is ever expanding, so I was grateful to the variety of topics we covered at Keele. One of the big advantages was the extensive time spent in the laboratory getting hands on experience with a range of analytical instrumentation, which related to the theory topics being taught in lectures. It was very helpful to be able to put lecture material into practice and this enabled me to learn the information much more thoroughly. I was impressed by the amount of laboratory time we were given and the variety of instruments available. After leaving Keele I managed to get a job as a science technician at a high school initially, where I think my extensive laboratory experience definitely helped me to secure the position. However, in June of 2013 I succeeded in gaining a job as a forensic scientist within a drugs department. I definitely feel that the degree course I studied at Keele provided me with an excellent advantage when applying for this job due to the amount of instrumentation we were able to use and the breadth of information we were taught. My course had a module devoted to the analysis of drugs of abuse which definitely gave me the information I needed to get through my interview. It taught me many techniques that are used within the forensic field such as TLC, GC-MS and HPLC which I now use on a daily basis within my job. I have been a forensic scientist now for over 4 and a half years and was recently promoted to a Reporting Forensic Scientist in April. I now write statements on cases that have been examined and are sent out to police forces across the country. I now work more closely with police officers and police staff to ensure that they receive all the information they need on current cases they are working on. I feel very grateful to have found a job in my chosen field and I know my degree at Keele was definitely worth all the effort I put into it.” Carlie Whiting BSc Forensic Science with Criminology Reporting Forensic Scientist at Key Forensic Services keele.ac.uk/forensic