R&D Graduate Scientist 1

My name is Miles, I grew up in Macclesfield, a town in the northwest of England, where I attended the local Tytherington School and studied chemistry, physics and maths my A levels. I then went on to study for an integrated master's degree in chemistry at the University of Nottingham, which included an international study year at the University of Melbourne in my third year. I'm now close to finishing my first year on the AstraZeneca research and development graduate programme in chemistry.

Throughout my degree, I was fortunate enough to gain experience working in several academic research groups at universities across the world however, I never had any significant exposure to working in industry. Before moving on to the next stage in my career, I wanted to see how science was done in industry and use the opportunity to consolidate what I have learned throughout my degree and helped me make decisions on the areas of science that I wanted to pursue my PhD and beyond. I also had a very good relationship with AstraZeneca. Having had exposure to the company during my time at secondary school. The work AstraZeneca does is inspiring, and the company's values have always resonated with me which has made a graduate placement, a perfect fit.

The work we do on the AstraZeneca R&D Graduate Programme is incredibly varied. And during our time with the company we get the opportunity to engage in with three different projects, working across different departments, within the R&D functions. In my current project I'm working in computational chemistry. My day-to-day generally involves running and analysing quantum chemical calculations using our in house scientific computing platform, with the aim of simulating and predicting the reactivity of pharmaceutical molecules.

When a target molecule has been identified, and moves into chemical development we need to understand the synthetic route to that molecule in as much detail as possible in order to devise the most efficient and sustainable ways to produce our drugs. The use of quantum mechanical modelling to simulate chemical reactivity on an atomic scale is one of the most incredible methods that we can use to help us do this. Pharmaceutical molecules can also be incredibly complex, and a variety of different methods have to be employed to understand how they behave. This makes my work very exciting and extremely dynamic as the techniques required in my day to day work can vary massively from project to project.

I joined AstraZeneca in September 2021. And my first placement on the Graduate Programme had an experimental aspect to it. Restrictions which were in place in my lab made it more challenging to regularly interact with my supervisor and get the direct reports I needed to start my project. My second project, however, has been entirely computational, which combined with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across the company has allowed me to carry out my work seamlessly and without any interruptions from the pandemic. The AstraZeneca R&D Graduate Programme is based in Cambridge, and I moved in not knowing anybody. At first it was more difficult to make friends and meet other people due to the social distancing rules. Although this has improved as COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.

At the end of this year, I'll be applying for PhD opportunities and would like to go on to pursue a career in computational chemistry, the field that I'm currently working in. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at university and during my master's project, and before joining AstraZeneca I was very set on going down the traditional accurate academic career, PhDs, postdocs, and hopefully eventually becoming a professor. I've been with the company for almost a year now and I've had an incredible time in industry. So much so that I have been reconsidering my future career options. I'll definitely go on to study for a PhD and I hope to still be working in chemistry in five years time because I love the work that I do. But as to whether I'll be working in academia or industry, I really don't know.